September 23, 2010 edition of the Bay Area Reporter

The Bay Area Reporter welcomes you to Leather Week 2010!

BAYAREAREPORTER

Vol. 40

. No. 38 . 23 September 2010

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Serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities since 1971

DADT repeal vote fails

SF health director up for LA job

SF has leather pride

by Matthew S. Bajko

by Lisa Keen

an Francisco Health Director Dr. Mitch Katz could be headed to Los Angeles if supervisors of California’s largest county hire him to be their health director. Should he be offered the job, he would take over the sprawling and con- Dr. Mitch Katz tentious county health department in January.

The Los Angeles Times broke the news on its website Monday, September 20. Los Angeles County chief executive, William T. Fujioka, told the paper that he believed Katz was the right person to head the Department of Health Services, which has a budget of $3.4 billion and 18,421 employees.

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Jane Philomen Cleland

an Francisco’s Leather Week kicked off Sunday, September 19 with the annual Leather Walk from the Castro to South of Market, site of Sunday’s 27th annual Folsom Street Fair. The walk raised about $10,000 for charity. For more on the city’s leather scene, see story below and the leather column in the arts section.

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Politics and leather a natural alliance in SF

by Matt Baume here may be no better example of San Francisco’s priorities than the city’s giddy anticipation of two upcoming events: the November elections and this Sunday’s 27th annual Folsom Street Fair.

The city’s long-established leather community tends to enjoy a strong relationship with city government.

“There have certainly been a lot of people at various appointed positions who identify as leather folks,” said Gayle Rubin, an anthropologist and LGBT historian whose doctoral dissertation focused on San Francisco leathermen.

“There’s certainly been an increase in the ability of the people who are openly gay and openly leather to serve on various boards and so forth.”

“Local politicians have been very friendly and supportive,” said Liza Sibley, executive producer of Ms. San Francisco Leather. “[State Senator] Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) has always been fabulous for the leather community. [Assemblyman] Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) has always been wonderful in talking to the leather community.” In addition, she observed, District 8 supervisor candidates Rebecca Prozan, Scott Wiener, and Rafael Mandelman were present at this year’s annual Leather Walk.

For his part, Leno said he embraces the leather community, though he won’t be at Sun-

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District 6 supervisor candidate Jim Meko is ready for this Sunday’s Folsom Street Fair.

day’s street fair.

“This is a rare Folsom I’ll miss,” Leno told the Bay Area Reporter. He’ll be visiting with distant family this weekend.

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Matt Baume

Rudy K. Lawidjaja

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Rick Gerharter

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A former San Francisco supervisor, the fair holds a special place for him. Leno recalled a constituent calling him many years ago when the leather flag was raised over the Castro, complaining about the leather community’s unapologetic visibility. Leno said he responded, “We’re proud of our leather community,” and described the fundraising and charitable work undertaken by leatherfolk. The constituent paused, then replied, “never mind.”

Fair organizers also point to the importance of political leaders.

“I feel like there are particular politicians that definitely have our best interests in mind,” said Demetri Moshoyannis, executive director of Folsom Street Events, which produces the leather and fetish extravaganza that takes place South of Market. “[Supervisor and mayoral candidate] Bevan Dufty has been far and away the strongest advocate for our community, and Mark Leno ... is always a person we can come to in the political area for any support we need.”

Dan Vanlaarz, president of the San Francisco Bay Leather alliance, agreed. “I don’t find any local politicians uncomfortable to approach,” he said.

Jim Meko, the openly gay chair of the SOMA Leadership Council and a candidate for District 6 supervisor, hopes to enhance the leather community’s existing political representation.

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he Senate Tuesday afternoon rejected a motion to break a Republicanled filibuster against an annual defense spending bill that includes language aimed at ending the military’s anti-gay “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law banning gays.

The vote was 56-43.

The outcome was uncertain all the way up to the vote, which started at 2:30 p.m. Eastern time, as Democratic leaders were reportedly trying to negotiate an agreement with one or two senators to reach the Senator Harry Reid 60-vote count they needed to proceed. But Republicans stood united in their contention that a procedural restriction placed on consideration of the annual defense spending bill was politically motivated to win the votes of LGBT people and Latinos for the midterm elections in November. (Another provision in the bill was for the Dream Act, which would have allowed illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children to become American citizens.)

In the end, all seven moderate Republicans who were identified as potential supporters on the motion to proceed on the defense bill voted no, as did Democrats Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln, both of Arkansas.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nevada) rule called for only three amendments to be considered during discussion of the defense authorization bill this week – amendments on DADT, immigration, and a Senate rule on secret holds on nominations. All other amendments, he said, would be taken up after the midterm elections.

Republican leadership immediately balked and charged Reid with playing politics with the defense bill. They refused to grant the necessary unanimous consent to proceed with consideration of the bill. So, Reid filed a motion last week to require the Senate to vote Tuesday on a motion to proceed without unanimous consent. That motion required 60 votes.

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BAY AREA REPORTER . eBAR.com . 23 September 2010

NEWS

Jane Philomen Cleland

COMMUNITY

Councilman Jesse Arreguin

Candidate Eric Panzer

Candidate Jim Novosel

Berkeley council race draws gay challenger

CALL NOW! 1-888-688-1777

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allow out of scale development downtown while not ensuring real community benefits like affordable housing and open space,” said Arreguin. “I support green development and real enforceable policy to make sure construction jobs and hotel jobs are good paying union jobs. We have an opportunity to include those things but the council chose to only benefit the university and developers. Let’s go back to the drawing board and make the plan better.”

Panzer and Novosel both back the plan and say it will benefit the city’s residents. They say the plan’s allowance of the construction downtown of three additional buildings no taller than the two tallest buildings in the city is a good compromise.

“I think that this plan gives great opportunities to get both housing and jobs and the sort of public benefits we want in the downtown,” said Panzer. “I think the majority of people, when they know about it and once they read the details of it, are very supportive of it.”

Novosel criticized Arreguin for voting against the plan and delaying needed improvements to the city’s downtown area.

“Downtown needs a champion.

It needs someone who champions the urban environment, the people, the cultural life, the educational life, all the things that make it what it is.

To make divisions seems antithetical to making a better downtown,” said

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Seeking gay couples with children to participate in a SFSU study examining the impact of parenting on the health and wellbeing of gay men with children. Participation involves completing one face-to-face interview. Interviews take between 90120 minutes to complete. Participants are compensated $50.00 per person. Funds are available to help offset the cost of childcare while participating.

Berkeley city councilman with a long track record of supporting LGBT issues finds himself running for re-election this year against an openly gay candidate who has teamed up with a local architect and beekeeper in the race.

Councilman Jesse Arreguin, one of the council’s more progressive members, won a special election for the open District 4 seat in 2008 after the death of Councilwoman Dona Spring. He is the first Latino to serve on the council, and at age 26, the youngest member.

He faces a challenge this fall from Eric Panzer, 25, an openly gay man who is a cartographer for an environmental consulting firm, and Jim Novosel, 65, a local architect who

tends to chickens and 30,000 bees among nine hives he has in his backyard.

With the city switching to ranked choice voting this year, Panzer and Novosel have endorsed each other as their number two choice in the race.

A fourth candidate, engineer and UC Berkeley adjunct professor Bernt Rainer Wahl, is also on the ballot.

Development issues in the East Bay city’s downtown core and transit infrastructure are the top concerns in the campaign and have dominated much of the debate in the race. Another undercurrent is Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates and his moderate allies on the council wanting to replace Arreguin.

“My opponents have been saying I am not a team player. It begs the question what team are they playing on?” asked Arreguin. “I play on the team for District 4. I have worked collaboratively with my fellow council members on both sides of the political divide on the council and try to build consensus on issues like passing a strong climate action plan and building a downtown plaza on Center Street.”

Arreguin is an opponent of Measure R, a development plan for downtown that Bates and seven council members approved earlier this year. He contends the plan doesn’t represent the interests of his district, which includes the downtown, and will only benefit developers and the university, which intends to expand in the area.

“It is controversial because it will

Transgender woman named interim dean

by Seth Hemmelgarn ity College of San Francisco’s Board of Trustees has appointed a transgender woman interim dean of the school’s liberal arts program and of its Castro campus.

The move, announced September 7, makes Ms. Bob Davis, 63, one of the first openly transgender college administrators in the country, according to the school.

Davis became City College’s first openly transgender tenured faculty member in August 2003. She has taught music at the school since the summer of 1976.

Davis, who explained, “The title ‘Ms.’ is honorary, I bestowed it upon myself,” praised City College’s efforts to make the school welcoming for transgender people.

“The school’s been working very hard for the past five years to improve the atmosphere here for transgender people,” she said.

That has included a program to train staff on transgender issues.

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Susanne M. Schwarzer

by Matthew S. Bajko

Ms. Bob Davis, left, interim dean of liberal arts and Castro campus of City College, is shown at this year’s Pride Parade with Karen Saginor, president of the San Francisco City College Academic Senate.

She said the campaign has made the school a safer place to be, “but you have to remember with City College that people come here truly not just from all over the city, but from all over the world. The kind of sensitivity that

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23 September 2010 . eBAR.com . BAY AREA REPORTER

COMMUNITY

NEWS

Oakland council candidate describes change on Prop 8

by Seth Hemmelgarn ne of the leading candidates for the District 4 seat on the Oakland City Council has acknowledged that two years ago she voted for Proposition 8, California’s same-sex marriage ban.

But Melanie Shelby explained that she has had a change of heart since then, and that she is now part of a video project designed to educate others on the issue. She also said at an August endorsement meeting of the John George Democratic Club that she now supports marriage equality.

In a phone interview this week, Shelby explained that she had not had any conversations with her “very dear and trusted friends in the community” before her vote. She said she has supported civil unions and has attended numerous commitment ceremonies.

Shelby chided the Bay Area Reporter for not being “polite” when a reporter’s first question was about her Prop 8 vote.

She referred to the fact that since the failure of the No on 8 campaign, many people have realized the importance of marriage equality.

“What we’ve all learned in this process” is “we need to make sure we start with our base of trusted family and friends to ensure that everyone understands what is so important to us, regardless of the issue,” she said.

Shelby supporter Sean Dugar, who is assisting with her campaign, described her as a longtime friend.

Dugar, 26, identifies as bisexual. He indicated that he didn’t talk to Shelby before the election on Prop 8 and said he “really did not know what her thoughts at that time were.” He said it’s everybody’s responsibility to make sure they talk to others about issues they care about.

Shelby, 38, said she began to do her own education about marriage equality when a friend was removed from the decision-making process over his partner’s affairs in the last months of his partner’s life. The man explained to her that if they had the opportuni-

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Oakland City Council candidate Melanie Shelby

ty to marry, his removal from his partner’s life wouldn’t have happened.

Shelby asked friends what she could do, because she thought, “There has to be a way to help educate others in the way I educated myself.”

A mutual friend introduced her to Andrea Shorter, deputy marriage and coalitions coordinator for Equality California, the statewide LGBT rights organization. Shelby said she expressed a desire to do something because she believed there were others in the African American community who she could help to understand “what marriage equality truly means.”

Shorter brought in Marc Solomon, EQCA’s marriage director, and they talked about doing a video.

Shelby said she’s an elder in her church, and she’s sharing her story “in the hopes of bringing the African American faith community to a different understanding and appreciation about marriage equality.”

Geoff Kors, EQCA’s executive director, said the video is a project of the Equality California Institute, EQCA’s education arm. He said the project is “primarily focused on African Americans who have changed their position over the last two years on marriage equality.”

“One of the things that we’re seeing both in real experience and in the research is people hearing from other people who changed their minds on marriage equality opens them up to rethinking their own position,” Kors said.

Kors said that EQCA does not endorse in local races. He said the video won’t be released until after the November election, “because we wouldn’t want it to have an impact.”

Shelby said her work on Oakland’s Health and Human Services Commission included a focus on HIV/AIDS issues, especially concerning African American women, and that she would be continuing that work if elected to the City Council, among other issues.

The District 4 seat includes the Laurel and Diamond districts in Oakland. It is an open seat this year as the current councilwoman, Jean Quan, is running for mayor. Quan said she “Probably won’t” endorse in the race.

Other candidates in the race also support marriage equality.

Candidate Libby Schaaf said she voted against Prop 8. She said District 4 has a “very thriving” LGBT community.

Schaaf, 44, has worked as chief of staff to former council President Ignacio De La Fuente, among other posts, said she was involved in supporting East Bay Pride when it started in the late 1990s. She said that among other pro-LGBT moves, she also assisted in Oakland’s adoption of its equal benefits ordinance, requiring all businesses with city contracts to offer the same benefits to domestic partners as they do to spouses.

She said she’ll continue to look for opportunities for Oakland to set an example on progressive policies.

Clinton Killian, 53, an attorney and a District 4 candidate, said among other things he’s done probate and property seminars for the LGBT community and describes himself as an “early, strong supporter” of marriage equality. He voted against Prop 8.

Killian also said that in 2008 he worked to help educate black pastors on marriage equality.

He said he would “continue to do those kinds of things, as well as work closely with the community.”

Other candidates in the race include Daniel Swafford, Jill Broadhurst, and Ralph Kanz. At the August meeting of the John George Democratic Club, all said they support marriage equality.M

State discloses names of people with HIV

by Seth Hemmelgarn group of legal organizations this month criticized a state agency for disclosing the names of thousands of people with HIV to a contractor.

The disclosure came to light a couple weeks ago, when Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, and HIV and AIDS Legal Services Alliance sent a letter to David Maxwell-Jolly, director of the California Department of Health Care Services.

In the September 9 letter, the groups said they were “shocked and dismayed by the department’s blatant disregard of both California law and the privacy of HIV-positive Californians in its release of the confidential identifying information of approximately 5,000 HIV-positive Medi-Cal recipients” to the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

AHF had a contract with the state to help provide care to Californians living with HIV/AIDS who were eligible for Medi-Cal, which is designed for low-income people.

The groups stated they became aware of the breach during discussions about Assembly Bill 2590, which would have legalized the unauthorized release of such information.

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In a phone interview, Norman Williams, a Department of Health Care Services spokesman, said, “Protecting the private information of our beneficiaries is our top priority.”

In an e-mail, he wrote that the contract with AHF contained all of the confidentiality provisions required by state and federal law, and required that beneficiaries were not to be included in the project unless their individual consent was obtained.

The information that was released included names, addresses, and phone numbers, but not HIV status, according to Norman.

He didn’t know how many, if any, of the people whose names were disclosed were from the Bay Area.

The contract with AHF started in 2007 and was terminated December 31, 2009 after the state agency essentially determined it had already provided enough information to AHF, despite that agency’s assertion that it needed more information, according to Williams. The department paid just over $150,000 in invoices for the contract before it was terminated, he said.

AHF has released a statement that accused Lambda Legal and the other groups of being more concerned with privacy rights than patients’ health.

Jeff Sheehy, who has opposed names-based reporting and is a former San Francisco AIDS czar, recalled that during the administration of

President George W. Bush, the federal government said it would withhold funding to states that didn’t use names-based reporting.

According to Sheehy, if there were an effort to ensure access to housing and other health-related services, that would be one thing, but he said, “It doesn’t feel like there’s a coherent strategy here.”

If people’s names are being collected, officials have to be sure they’re providing high-quality health care, said Sheehy, who emphasized he was speaking as someone who’s living with HIV, and not on behalf of UCSF, where he’s currently the communications director for the AIDS Research Institute.

Carole Migden, a former state senator and San Francisco supervisor, has also been an opponent of namesbased reporting.

She suggested the names being released is an example of what happens when there’s a lack of activism.

“Generally speaking, there’s a lot less verve behind HIV activism today than there was years ago, much to the chagrin of many people, including myself,” said Migden.

Lambda Legal and the other groups have asked for a response to their letter by today [Thursday, September 23.] The Bay Area Reporter will post an update online.M

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BAY AREA REPORTER . eBAR.com . 23 September 2010

OPEN

BAYAREAREPORTER Volume 40, Number 38 23 September 2010 eBAR.com PUBLISHER Thomas E. Horn Bob Ross (Founder, 1971 – 2003) N E W S E D I TO R Cynthia Laird A R T S E D I TO R Roberto Friedman ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko Seth Hemmelgarn Jim Provenzano CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Dan Aiello • Tavo Amador • Matt Baume • Erin Blackwell Roger Brigham • Scott Brogan • Victoria A. Brownworth Philip Campbell • Chuck Colbert • Richard Dodds Raymond Flournoy • Brian Gougherty David Guarino • Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell Robert Julian • John F. Karr • Lisa Keen Matthew Kennedy • David Lamble • Michael McDonagh Paul Parish • Lois Pearlman • Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota Bob Roehr • Donna Sachet • Adam Sandel Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro • Gwendolyn Smith Robert Sokol • Ed Walsh • Sura Wood

A R T D I R E C TO R Kurt Thomas DESIGNER T. Scott King P H OTO G R A P H E R S Jane Philomen Cleland Marc Geller Rick Gerharter Lydia Gonzales Rudy K. Lawidjaja Steven Underhill Bill Wilson I L L U S T R ATO R S & C A R TO O N I S T S Paul Berge Christine Smith G E N E R A L M A N AG E R Michael M. Yamashita D I S P L AY A DV E R T I S I N G Colleen Small Scott Wazlowski C L A S S I F I E D A DV E R T I S I N G David McBrayer N AT I O N A L A DV E R T I S I N G R E P R E S E N TAT I V E Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863 LEGAL COUNSEL Paul H. Melbostad

Harry Reid’s DADT failure former president’s support. pparently even Lady Gaga can’t influWe’ve been critical of Reid’s leadership before ence the Senate. and Tuesday’s fumbled DADT vote is just anothThe much-anticipated Senate vote er example of how he puts process above on an amendment that would have compromise. Collins said so herself. started the repeal of “Don’t Ask, While she supports repeal of DADT, she Don’t Tell” was a complete failure noted that the defense bill contains for Majority Leader Harry Reid (D“many controversial issues” that “deserve Nevada). The Republican senators to have a civil, fair, and open debate on the formed a united bloc in a 56-43 vote Senate floor.” But Reid didn’t want that against taking up the defense spending bill debate. in which the amendment was contained.

There’s also the issue of timing.

Lady Gaga, of course, staged sevThe House of Representatives voted eral high-profile appearances where E DITORIAL in May to pass the DADT amendshe spoke out against the military’s ment. (It’s important to note that ban on openly gay service members. the amendment does not repeal She tweeted Reid (who tweeted back) DADT, it merely sets the stage for repeal.) At that and on Monday she was in Maine in an unsucpoint, the measure went to the Senate and it was cessful effort to persuade the state’s two moderspeculated that the Senate would vote in June, ate GOP senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan but that did not happen. The problem is that Collins, to vote to break the Republican filibuster. waiting until mid-September scheduled the vote The important thing to keep in mind is that six weeks away from the midterm elections, durTuesday’s vote wasn’t really about beginning the ing a time when the political climate in Washprocess of dismantling DADT as it was about ington is guaranteed to be more polarized.

Reid’s stubbornness by refusing to allow other The result: a critical blow to LGBT equality amendments that cost him the support of and the hopes of seeing the military’s anti-gay Collins, and probably other senators as well. In policy repealed. While it is possible that another addition to the DADT amendment, the defense vote might occur during the lame-duck session bill also contains the Dream Act amendment, after the elections but before new members are which would have allowed illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children to become American citizens. So now Reid, who is in the toughest re-election fight of his life, can take responsibility for widening the so-called enthusiasm gap – now LGBTs and Latinos are both angered by Tuesday’s defeat. The Senate’s failure does not help to energize LGBTs and Latinos to turn out for the November 2 election, and that’s a shame.

In California, we need gays and Latinos to vote in large numbers if we’re to stop the Meg Whitman juggernaut (yes, she is against samesex marriage and would defend Proposition 8).

Democrat Jerry Brown is fumbling one issue after another in this most unusual (and expensive) campaign. First, he was slow to get on the air because he has far less money than Whitman, who has shattered all personal contribution records by putting $119 million of her own money into the race. Then, Brown made an impromptu, lame joke about former President Bill Clinton in a defensive response to Whitman’s critical commercial that used footage from an old Clinton-Brown debate when both men were running for president. Brown quickly apologized and Clinton quickly endorsed him, but it’s likely Brown’s attempt at humor almost cost him the

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sworn in, we are increasingly skeptical that will happen. And given the very real chance that Democrats will take a beating in the elections, we don’t see DADT repeal becoming reality soon.

That could change when the Pentagon’s DADT report is completed in early December, but the bottom line is that this week was our best chance for a successful vote and Reid blew it.

In the meantime, there are actions the Obama administration can take. According to an analysis by law professor Diane Mazur of the Palm Center at UC Santa Barbara, the White House has a strong foundation for not appealing a federal case that declared DADT unconstitutional.

Based on the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v. Texas that ruled people can choose their personal relationships without interference from the government unless the government has a good reason, Mazur argues that there is no “good reason” to continue with DADT, as a federal judge in southern California decided in Log Cabin Republicans v. United States.

While that outcome is probably a long shot, President Barack Obama could – as we’ve called for before – order a halt to discharges under DADT while the legal case and congressional action slowly move forward.

As someone who has called himself our “fierce advocate,” it’s the least Obama could do.M

Pride board responds to B.A.R.

by Mikalya Connell

Best Bay Area Community Newspaper 2006

FORUM

n behalf of San Francisco Pride, I would like to thank the B.A.R. for reporting on Pride’s $99,000 deficit in last week’s edition. We sincerely hope this coverage helps generate more donations to ensure the continuation of our community’s most sacred event. Pride, like virtually all nonprofits, has been hard hit by the global economic crisis. Time, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post have all reported on the difficulties faced by nonprofits in the wake of the recession.

All across the country, nonprofits of every type are seeing their corporate and individual donations drop off. In response, we are seeing G UEST nonprofits cutting back programs, laying off employees, and even going out of business altogether. Here in San Francisco, we do not need to look far afield to see the truth of this; the financial problems of our own LGBT Community Center made headlines earlier this year, and, after 35 years of providing mental health and social services to the LGBT community, New Leaf: Services for Our Community will close its doors on October 15 following “severe financial reversals.”

There is no doubt that the global economic crisis has hit our local LGBT nonprofits, and Pride is no exception.

At the same time, there is no need for the community to panic. Pride is not in danger of going out of business anytime soon. Historically, Pride has run a deficit at the end of the year about 50 percent of the time. While $99,000 is certainly more of a deficit than we would like to have, it is not an insurmountable debt. Earlier this month, our board of directors approved a budget for the 2010-2011 year that will wipe out the deficit entirely. This bud-

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get is the product of weeks of work by our Executive Director Amy Andre, treasurer Belinda Ryan, and our Budget and Finance Committee. There is a price for this fiscal responsibility – we had to make numerous cuts, including elimination of the Jumbotron screens that debuted at this year’s festival, as well as travel expenses for board and staff to LGBT conferences. We also cut an unfilled staff position, the director of external relations, and now that position’s job responsibilities will be shouldered by the remaining staff. These and other cuts we’ve made will eliminate the entire current deficit and allow us to continue the largest, most fabulous Pride event in our country.

All of this we shared with the community (and the B.A.R.) at O PINION our annual general meeting on Sunday, September 12. Pride is, as always, as transparent as it can be. Our board meetings and our general membership meetings are open to the public (they take place on the first and second Tuesdays of the month, respectively, at 7 p.m. at Pride’s offices) and we invite all who are interested to attend. Pride is, as it has always been, entirely committed to serving our community.

Speaking of our community, we must apologize to many of our community partners. As mentioned by the B.A.R., for four years, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009, we miscalculated expenses related to our beverage partners program. As a result, we overpaid our beverage partners for those four years, and Pride shouldered the bulk of expenses whose cost was supposed to be split. This year, as a result of staff changes, our new executive director and our bookkeeper found the error and corrected it, resulting in lower (but correct) payments to our beverage partners. Unfortunately, many of our beverage partners had expected to receive larger payments because of the expectations

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set by the erroneous 2006-2009 payments.

We know some of our beverage partners were expecting much larger payments than they received this year, and we sincerely apologize for the accounting error in 2006-2009 that led to those unrealistic expectations. Unfortunately, we cannot continue to overpay our beverage partners in the current economic climate. In good times we can, and did. For example, in my first two years as president of Pride, 2007 and 2008, the board of directors actually approved paying our community partners more than we were obligated to because Pride made a surplus in those years (this approved overpayment was in addition to the erroneous and then unknown overpayment that was occurring because of the accounting error previously mentioned). When Pride makes a surplus, we are happy to spread the wealth among our community partners. Unfortunately, due to the global economic crisis, we are no longer making a surplus and we can no longer afford to overpay our partners, either through approved overpayments or through errors. So, once again, we sincerely apologize for the accounting errors in 20062009 that led to our beverage partners’ expectations this year.

We do take issue, however, with the B.A.R. editorial calling for the resignation of our new executive director, Amy Andre. In the editorial, the B.A.R. sharply criticizes Andre for Pride’s current deficit, the problems around beverage partner compensation, and the lack of return on Pride’s latest fundraising efforts.

We, the board of directors of Pride, believe these criticisms are unfair. First, as discussed earlier in this letter, nonprofits all around the country are facing decreased revenues and large deficits. Pride’s current deficit is not the fault of an executive director who has not been in her job for even a single year yet – it is a

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23 September 2010 . eBAR.com . BAY AREA REPORTER

LETTERS

Explanation owed to Pride beverage partners

in any way. She explained that she was a prosecutor and truly sympathized with my situation and the growing problem of Thank you for your article on the challenges faced by San violence around our “event weekends” and within the LGBT Francisco Pride and the impact on community-based orgacommunities. Not once during our conversation did she nizations like Pets Are Wonderful Support [“SF Pride has mention she was running for supervisor, nor did she have $99,000 deficit,” September 16]. We are saddened that the any handouts, etc. She handed me her card, hugged me, and issue has escalated to this point but remain hopeful that the stayed for the rally. It wasn’t until after I got home and startBay Area Reporter article will shed light on these issues and ed going through the many business cards I received that ultimately help our community move forward. day, that I realized who she was.

I do want to clarify that PAWS never had a problem with About a week later I did call her to see if she could do SF Pride’s request to pay their beverage partners or find out anything regarding the criminal in installments. Managing cash flow is an inteprocess or status of my case. Within a very short gral part of running a nonprofit organization, time she called me back, asked for the case numand we were fully supportive of SF Pride’s need ber, etc., and said she would get back to me. to make payment arrangements. Our concern Within 24 hours, she called back, while at the all along has been with the disparity in the airport having dinner with her partner, who amount SF Pride charged back to PAWS in the was going out of town. She explained that the form of fixed expenses that increased 1,204 conversation would be a bit short due to the percent from $893.14 in 2009 to $11,642.50 in M AILSTROM situation at hand, but wanted to follow up.

2010. This action had a profound and negaWhen I ran into her at the Eagle last Suntive impact on our fundraising and all of us at day, we spoke for quite some time. What I found amazing PAWS are very disappointed with the drastic changes SF about this woman was her constant regard and compassion Pride implemented this year; changes that were never comfor my situation and my well-being as an individual, the municated ahead of time to the beverage partners.

LGBT community’s safety, and the future of our events. I We have always viewed the beverage partner program as know during political climates candidates will schmooze and an innovative way to staff the SF Pride event while providpromise, but I truly believe her goals, ideas, and priorities, ing community-based organizations with an opportunity to along with her compassion and willingness to be at the comraise meaningful dollars in support of their missions. When munity level makes her a perfect choice to represent District we entered into this partnership in 2010 we anticipated that 8 as a member of the Board of Supervisors. Go to our fundraising (based on 25 percent of the revenue from www.rebeccaprozan.com and make a “yes” decision for Reindividual booth sales minus fixed expenses) would remain becca. consistent with past years. The contract we signed was identical to previous years and there was no communication Ray Tilton from Pride indicating their intent to make any changes. This Santa Rosa, California reasonable assumption was also supported by the similarity in our booth sales; $37,756 in 2009 and $36,545 this year. InSmell gas? Call 911 stead we were stunned to discover that the unannounced Friends of my parents lost their home in the San Bruno changes in SF Pride’s accounting procedures resulted in our fire on September 9. I am devastated for them and all that donation being cut almost in half, from $7,958 in 2009 to were affected by this. To see the neighborhood that I used to $4,034 this year. trick-or-treat in as a kid now in ruins breaks my heart. Mayor With the recent announcement of SF Pride’s operating Gavin Newsom said on September 10 at a meeting of the SF deficit, we certainly understand the organization’s need to Disaster Council that if you smell natural gas you call 911. I find additional revenue for general operations. What we couldn’t have put it better myself. don’t understand is Pride’s insistence on changing their internal accounting procedures to find that revenue at the exRyan Meek pense of their trusted and longtime community partners.

San Francisco Each year PAWS must make hard choices about the best way to invest our limited resources to support our mission.

In order to staff one beverage booth at SF Pride, PAWS must Politics and polls mobilize 75 volunteers; a precious and limited resource. In The Political Notebook column by Matthew S. Bajko can addition, each of our fulltime staff is required to participate hardly be considered journalism [“Poll targets D8 supe race,” that day. We invest a great deal of agency resources in staffing September 16]. Mr. Bajko identifies a mysterious poll rethe SF Pride booth with the expectation that the fundraising garding the District 8 supervisor race, but fails to identify opportunity will provide a meaningful return on our inwho conducted the poll or what the results are. One could vestment of time and labor, and will generate funds to suppresume that he does not know. Yet he seems to know the port our core services. If SF Pride wants to make a case that poll questions in great detail. He does not state how he comes the beverage booth partners need to pay more of the event’s to so intimately know the questions. There is no source cited overall costs, they owe it to us to explain that logic before deby name, or even as anonymous. This begs the question of ciding to implement those changes. This would allow bevwhy this alleged poll is even newsworthy. Mr. Bajko states erage partners to do a thoughtful analysis and make an inthat the poll was conducted in June of 2010, but it is now formed choice about participating.

September. Is the news story that the candidates claim they As it now stands, the actions of SF Pride go against the do not know who is behind the alleged poll? What is the spirit of our beverage partner contract and, most important, point? the community’s understanding of this model. In the spirit Perhaps the point is to give forum in the B.A.R. for yet of what SF Pride stands for, it is our sincere hope that the oranother picture of Scott Wiener followed by an article deganization’s leadership will address this issue and do the right tailing his Washington, D.C. endorsements. There just seems thing for the community and the thousands of people who that there is no other purpose to publish a story about a mysdepend on the services provided by PAWS and all of our sistery poll with unpublished result from three months ago, ter organizations who participate in the beverage program. citing no sources.

Our community deserves no less.

Richard J. Nelson San Francisco

John L. Lipp, President Pets Are Wonderful Support

Give Pride director a chance I am a member of the Pride Committee and my organization is a recipient of a community grant award. I would like to respond to your editorial suggesting that Pride director Amy Andre should step down [“Pride’s Andre must step down,” September 16].

First, Amy has only been on the job for less than a year.

She inherited the problems that led to the deficit. They were brewing before she came, so she cannot be totally blamed for the situation. I believe she has done her very best during this time, and is seeking to remedy the situation. I believe she should be given time to bring Pride out of its financial difficulties.

Secondly, I also believe that rather then seek to blame our leaders we should work with them. We tend to scapegoat whoever is in charge when we feel out of control and not sure of what we can do. We need someone to blame. My suggestion is that we work with Amy, talk to her and the Pride board and see what we all can do to solve the problems.

Rather than place the blame on our leaders let’s look at ourselves first.

Father River Sims Temenos Catholic Worker San Francisco

If I could vote from Santa Rosa I usually don’t come out in support of any one candidate for office and have only done it twice in the past. I openly supported Tom Ammiano and Mark Leno as I personally believed in them.

I find myself quite impressed and throwing my support to Rebecca Prozan for District 8 supervisor this political season for the following reasons. I was assaulted on gay Pride Friday and subsequently held a rally the following Saturday known as Red Saturday. As the rally was gathering a woman approached me and introduced herself and offered to help

[Editor’s note: The column referred to two polls. The first, conducted recently, was the subject of most of the column. An earlier poll was reportedly conducted in June.]

Governor should sign SB 200 We applaud state Senator Leland Yee’s (D-San Francisco) legislation (SB 200) that would ensure that patients have access to smoking cessation treatment in order to help them quit. This is an extraordinarily cost-effective idea. Every person liberated from tobacco puts a dent in the nearly $100 billion annual cost for treating tobacco-related diseases in the U.S. SB 220 passed both houses and is sitting on the governor’s desk.

We were surprised to learn that the governor will decide to sign or veto the bill based on input from LGBT community members among other constituents.

As the facilitator of the Last Drag, founded in 1991, and the first tobacco cessation program for LGBT and HIV-positive smokers, we can attest to the importance of affordable treatment as one vital component of a quitting regimen.

With a very high rate of smoking among LGBTs, this legislation is important to our community, especially to those with lower income, who smoke at higher rates and are less likely to be able to afford treatment. Please contact the governor immediately to urge him to sign this important bill. You can fax (916) 558-3160 or write Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Attention: Jennifer Kent, Jacque Roberts, Office of the Governor, State Capitol, Sacramento, CA 95814 Please also identify yourself as a member of our community or as an ally.

Thank you for your consideration and for your help, Gloria Soliz Coalition of Lavender-Americans on Smoking or Health San Francisco

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BAY AREA REPORTER . eBAR.com . 23 September 2010

COMMENTARY

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There’s always hope one’s self.

Likewise, not everyone chooses to transifriend of mine recently sugtion. Indeed, if one does gested I write about giving up not feel the overwhelmon her gender transition and ing need to, then maybe settling for, presumably, an unhappy it’s best not to. Our life. I told her in reply that this was world is slowly becomsimply not something I could write ing all the more tolerant about. It’s not that there aren’t such of gender beyond the situations, mind you – some have simple binary system, had to delay transitions, and I’ve and people have occuknown a few who transitioned and pied gendered spaces of felt the need to return to their gentheir own choosing and der, preferring life in their birth gendesire for decades – perder over the challenges and pitfalls of haps centuries. Indeed, I transition. am highly encouraged The reason I did not feel I could to live in a time when fulfill her request is simple. Even in one does not need to go the darkest moments, I feel that through surgery to be a there is hope. part of their preferred When I was a child, I decided gender, and when one there was no way I could ever be can do what they wish open enough about my own gender to step away from such issues to even start down such a constructs altogether. path. It simply was not an option for Things have changed a poor kid in a poor neighborhood. dramatically over the last several I knew my parents would not apdecades, and largely in favor of prove, that I would likely be kicked transgender people. We’ve gone out of their house, and I would not from the days when a person could have many opportunities for basic be arrested for not wearing enough survival, let alone a transition. I may of the clothing of their birth gender well have been right at that time, too. to a time when a growing numBut not dealing with this was ber of states have at least all the more difficult. I learned some form of transgender to sublimate my feelings, protections. While we still learned to live with the desee poor representations spair and pain. In the end, I of transgender people in lost a decade or so of my the media, the popularity of life, coupled with a lot of such have waned. otherwise damagPerfection, no – but ing habits. far cry from where Since coming T RANSMISSIONS athings were. out, I have met I first got intransgender people volved with transgender activism in who have overcome odds far greater 1993. At that time, a number of us than any I imagined as a kid. Many starry-eyed activists tried to imagine did indeed end up on the street – what changes we might see in our and survived. Many seem to have delifetimes. In the 17 years since then, cided that there was nowhere else to our wildest imaginings have come go but up, and nothing left to lose in and gone, leaving us in untouched the process. territories. I cannot help but hope – In my years, I’ve heard from even expect – that things will conmany eying a gender transition. tinue to change for the better, and Many had reasons why they would what is “pie in the sky” now will be not be able to do so. They’re too surpassed in the next decade and a poor, too ugly, too old, would lose half. If we keep hope in our hearts, too much, whatever. At the same and continue forward. time, I know many others who did Transitions are by their very natransition who overcame abject ture times of movement. Sometimes poverty, appearance issues, the that movement is impossibly slow, specter of old age, and other obstaand sometimes-painful realities can cles. One could argue, then, that the stand in the way of rapid fulfillment. only thing holding a person back is From my own experience, I understand that frustration. It can be very tempting to just throw up the white flag and give up when the odds seem

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

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we expect of people here in San Francisco is something we have to model and teach all the time, because there’s always a new bunch of students.”

Davis said the school often says that one out of every seven people in San Francisco attend City College, so the school has about 100,000 students.

“Ms. Bob is an inspiration and role model for our students, staff and all who know her not only as a transgender activist but as a human being of courage and great generosity of spirit – truly a teacher of life,” Lawrence Wong, an openly gay college board trustee, said in a statement from the school.

Davis, who declined to state her

Christine Smith

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stacked against you. Despair is seductively easy.

If anything though, I think that despairing – let alone “giving up” and “settling” – is our biggest enemy.

Transgender people as a whole often have to find a way to speak their truth in a world where those closest to us are just as likely to call us deluded or worse.

Those who stand against us would love nothing more for all of us to give up. We are mocked and belittled by those who would see to bully us into submission. We’re “regendered” by people desiring to fit our lives into their own narratives.

In the worst-case scenarios we are all but erased from existence. Families claim the bodies of their transgender relatives, and strip away their gender preferences, making them something in death they never desired in life.

It is up to us and those who care about us to stand up for what we believe in – and number one is that the only person who gets a say in our genders is ourselves.

So no, I am not going to write about giving up. Perhaps I watched one too many Hollywood movies in my time, where you either succeed through perseverance or go out in a blaze of glory. I just cannot believe in giving up when there’s still a chance – no matter how small it seems – to succeed.M Gwen Smith believes that Harvey Milk was right. You can find her online at www.gwensmith.com.

salary, has served as City College’s transgender outreach and advocacy coordinator, the school’s representative to the transgender community.

As part of City College’s campaign to increase transgender inclusion, she spearheaded efforts to accommodate transgender students better in the school’s programs and facilities. This included creating single occupant, gender-neutral public restrooms on all the district’s campuses; administering transgender awareness training sessions for hundreds of faculty, administrators, and staff; and representing City College on the community advisory board of San Francisco’s Transgender Employment Empowerment Initiative.

She was also an adviser to City College’s Queer Resource Center and Queer Alliance, the LGBT student club.M

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23 September 2010 . eBAR.com . BAY AREA REPORTER

POLITIC S

Ulmer courts LGBT voters

by Matthew S. Bajko ext week San Francisco Superior Court Judge Richard Ulmer will take his campaign to retain his seat on the local bench to the city’s LGBT community. A number of his LGBT supporters within the city’s legal circles plan to “speak out” about why they are backing the former Republican and straight candidate over his challenger, openly gay attorney and crime novelist Michael Nava.

The event will take place Tuesday, September 28 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in the Rainbow Room at the LGBT Community Center located at 1800 Market Street. Among the speakers will be Chief Deputy City Attorney Therese M. Stewart, who successfully argued the city’s same-sex marriage case before the California Supreme Court; and out Superior Court Judges Donna Hitchens, Kevin McCarthy, and Mary Morgan.

The event is being billed as a chance for LGBT voters to meet and hear from Ulmer as well as from his LGBT judicial backers. In a statement announcing the event, Morgan called Ulmer a “friend and ally” of the LGBT community.

“Judge Ulmer has been a wonderful asset to the bench here in San Francisco as he brings an unusual depth and breadth of experience to our court,” stated Morgan. “Day to day in my work with him, Judge Ulmer has proven to be an eminently qualified, fair and impartial judge who I am proud to call my colleague.”

Stewart explained that she has thrown her backing to Ulmer because she believes he is well qualified to be a judge and deserves to remain on the court.

“Maintaining an experienced and independent judiciary is critical to the LGBTQ community and to the future of San Francisco,” stated Stewart. “We can’t afford to lose this talented and impartial jurist.”

Nava has argued that he is not only qualified to serve on the court but can help diversify the local bench, which has only three Latino jurists and less than a dozen out judges. He stressed that argument once again in an e-mail he sent to supporters earlier this month.

Rather than retire from the legal profession, Nava wrote that he decided to launch his judicial bid because “it has become clear to me that the lack of diversity among California’s judges is a serious issue on many levels. It means that for young people from disenfranchised communities who want to enter the profession – young people of color, women, LGBT people – there are few role models and mentors to look to for encouragement, inspiration and assistance.”

His campaign plans to greet attendees at Ulmer’s event and hand out literature supporting his candidacy. In a message to supporters, his campaign manager Bryan Terhune criticized Ulmer for holding his event at the LGBT center.

“A very odd location choice for a straight, white, male, former Republican, who is running for office against an openly gay, Latino candidate,” wrote Terhune. “The people attending the event should really be keenly aware of who is ‘the’ LGBT candidate for Superior Court judge before going into the event.”

Ever since Nava emerged as the top-finishing candidate in the threeperson primary race in June, his runoff race against Ulmer has become increasingly heated. The contest has also marked a rare instance where the court’s judges have so publicly campaigned on behalf of a colleague.

Most judges do not face challengers for their seats when they go before the voters; among legal circles it is considered anathema for someone to take on a judge considered by most to be doing a good job. Two years ago when former Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval

Jane Philomen Cleland

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Judge Richard Ulmer, left, talks with supporters Raoul Kennedy and Judge John Stewart at a recent fundraiser.

ran against and ultimately defeated Judge Richard Mellon, the Republican jurist did not have the same public backing from those on the court as Ulmer has garnered.

Angel Garganta, an openly gay Latino lawyer who is a partner with law firm Arnold and Porter, said he is not surprised to see Ulmer engender so much support. He first met the judge back in the early 1990s when he was fresh out of law school and they worked at the same law firm together.

“He was just an absolutely great teacher and mentor and somebody who was totally supportive of me as a gay man at a time when not everybody was out in big law firms back then,” recalled Garganta.

P OLITICAL “I just really think highly of Dick. I always found him to be a really compassionate person, open-minded person, and an excellent lawyer. So I felt that I needed to lend my support when he was being challenged.”

While Garganta supports seeing the state’s judiciary be more diverse, he said it shouldn’t be achieved by defeating competent judges.

“You know the implication is somehow someone of his background could not be a fair judge to our communities. I think that is just total bunk,” said Garganta. “I don’t even know Mr. Nava and have nothing against him whatsoever. But I do think he is running against the wrong guy.”

For his part Ulmer said LGBT voters should be weary of rejecting judges based on their political affiliations or sexual orientation. He pointed to the many straight Republican appointed judges who have ruled in favor of same-sex marriage in legal cases across the country.

“We shouldn’t be putting people into boxes,” said Ulmer, who switched from being a registered Republican to decline-to-state after being appointed to the bench last summer by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. “I reject the notion that the LGBT community is some monolithic group where everybody votes and thinks the same way.”

Due to his being a judge, Ulmer is not allowed to voice his stance on various issues, including LGBT rights.

When asked why LGBT voters should support him, he does point to his mentoring of LGBT lawyers and his pro bono work on a lawsuit against the California Youth Authority.

In that case one of the main plaintiffs he represented was a young gay man who faced deplorable treatment at the state-run detention facilities. Having lived in San Francisco for 17 years, Ulmer said he believes he has a good grasp of the issues LGBT people face.

“You couldn’t help but understand living in San Francisco,” said Ulmer, whose younger sister Karol is a lesbian and lives with her partner, Jenny Pullen, in Omaha, Nebraska.

The couple plans to come to San Francisco in late October to help Ulmer campaign. In a phone interview, Karol Ulmer said her brother embraced her when she came out to

him and has ensured they remained close despite living so far apart.

“He moved out there 25, maybe more, years ago but he has always remembered his years here and upbringing. He always comes back and sends his daughter back to visit us. She stays here every summer for a couple weeks,” said Karol Ulmer. “He stays with us every time when he visits. I feel good about that, that he feels comfortable and good being here and we love having him here.”

When the couple was in the Bay Area in July to visit, Karol Ulmer said they didn’t talk about the election.

Nor did she know a gay candidate was challenging her brother until asked about it by a reporter this week.

“It might surprise you but when we were out there N OTEBOOK we didn’t talk about it much.

He is not comfortable talking about himself,” she said. “The election was not a topic of conversation. We talked more about the Giants.”

Ulmer said he is confident of retaining his seat because as more voters, both LGBTs and independents, get to know him they will see he is the better-qualified candidate.

“It really does come down to qualifications. I was a lawyer for 23 years and a litigator the whole time. I was in court quite often. I know the dynamics of the courtroom,” said Ulmer.

“Michael is an intelligent guy but he has not been on his feet in a courtroom for over 23 years.”

If Nava is so concerned about a diverse bench, Ulmer questioned why he didn’t seek a seat on the San Mateo County Superior Court, in whose jurisdiction he lives with his husband.

“If diversity is what this is all about, the San Mateo bench is a lot less diverse than San Francisco is,” said Ulmer.

Meanwhile, this Saturday, September 25 the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund is co-hosting a fundraiser for Nava and three other out LGBT candidates it has endorsed this year. Along with filling Nava’s coffers in his judicial race, the event will also benefit Oakland Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan’s bid to be her city’s mayor; administrative law judge Victoria Kolakowski’s race for a seat on the Alameda County Superior Court; and Aaron Kampfe, a candidate for Montana state Senate.

Blake Oshiro, who is running to be a Hawaii state representative, will be the special guest at the event. The fundraiser takes place from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at lesbian chef Elizabeth Falkner’s Orson restaurant, located at 508 4th Street.

Individual tickets cost $50. For more information visit www.victoryfund.org. M

Web content Online content this week includes an article about the upcoming Butch Voices conference in West Hollywood. www.ebar.com

www.ebar.com

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BAY AREA REPORTER . eBAR.com . 23 September 2010

INTERNATIONAL

NEWS

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Russian gay man abducted, released, arrested again employers while charges were being processed. In 2007 the newspaper Okaz reported the public flogging of two men in the city of Al-Bahah after being found guilty of sodomy. The sentence was 7,000 lashes.”

by Rex Wockner oscow Pride founder and gay rights leader Nikolai Alekseev has reported that he was abducted by government agents of some sort at Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport September 15 and held for more than two days.

On Tuesday, U.K. Gay News reported that Alekseev was arrested during an evening protest outside Moscow City Hall. The publication also reported that Alekseev said he was injured during the incident.

During the first incident last week, Alekseev was seized after passing through passport control and taken to a room by security officials and an airline worker, he said. There, his lugRussian gay leader Nikolai Alekseev gage, documents, and computer were examined for more than two hours.

Alekseev then was turned over to on his LiveJournal blog, and the quowhat he called “hulking men in civiltations here have been translated. On ian clothes, with faces not disfigured Facebook, Alekseev said he would “get by intellect,” who removed him from mad” if he tried to translate it.) the airport via nonpublic passageways In a five-year battle with Luzhkov, and drove him to a police facility two who has banned the gay Pride march hours away, where he was further each year and sent police to arrest searched. In a moment when he small groups of activists who was left alone, Alekseev used defied the bans, Alekseev, a his iPad to discover where he lawyer, has filed a series was. of lawsuits at the Euro“I got my iPad and pean Court of Human with two taps learned my Rights. The court has location,” he said. “If I did merged the cases and not have this device, I is expected to deal with would have never found them this year. out where I was the first “It appears the RussW OCKNER’ S ian authorities realize day. Thanks, Apple! The W ORLD location showed up as the their inevitable humilicity of Kashira. I began ating defeat at the Eurofrantically finger-zooming pean Court of Human Rights and the map to find the exact address, but employ such desperate methods as inthere was no 3G Internet there and timidation, threats and abduction to the Edge network loads maps very prevent it,” said the European Region slowly. ... Afraid that they would catch of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bime, I disconnected the iPad comsexual, Trans and Intersex Associapletely. Then they tried to get into it, tion, or ILGA-Europe. but couldn’t, because it was passwordGay Saudi diplomat protected.”

Alekseev, 32, said he was mocked seeks U.S. asylum and insulted, called “faggot” and “pedThe former first secretary of Saudi erast,” probably drugged via a glass of Arabia’s consulate in Los Angeles has water, and eventually presented with requested asylum in the United States a paper to sign, which said that an because he says he’ll be executed for agreement had been reached to drop being gay if he returns home. his lawsuits at the European Court of “If I go back to Saudi Arabia, they Human Rights over Moscow Mayor will kill me openly in broad daylight,” Yuri Luzhkov’s bans of gay Pride paAli Ahmad Asseri e-mailed media rades. He didn’t sign it, “despite peroutlets in mid-September. sistent ‘advice’ not to enter into conAsseri said Saudi officials ordered flict with the authorities,” he said. him home after finding out he’s gay The second night, Alekseev was and is friends with a Jew. He apparmoved to another police facility in the ently has been in hiding since. city of Tula, farther south of Moscow, The U.S. does grant asylum to forhe said. Around the same time, someeign gays if the U.S. is convinced they one used his cell phone to text false inface genuine harm in their native formation to the media – saying that lands. The laws treat gay asylum-seekAlekseev was in Belarus, had sought ers as members of “a particular social political asylum there, and was dropgroup.” ping his European Court cases.

It would appear that Asseri has When this was reported in the reason to be fearful. media, activists and journalists According to Saudi Arabia’s entry around the world who have regular in the United States’ 2009 State Decontact with Alekseev strongly suspartment Human Rights Reports, pected that the information had not “Under Shari’a as interpreted in the come from Alekseev or that he was no country, sexual activity between two longer in control of his own mind. persons of the same gender is punishAlekseev was released on the outable by death or flogging. It is illegal skirts of Tula early the morning of for men ‘to behave like women’ or to September 18, made his way to the wear women’s clothes and vice versa. city center, and took a bus to Moscow, There were few reports of societal dishe said. crimination, physical violence, or ha“I intend to sue the Domodedovo rassment based on sexual orientation.

Airport and its aviation-security serThere were no organizations of lesvices, which violated international law bian, gay, bisexual, and transgender and forced me back under Russian jupersons. There was no official disrisdiction,” Alekseev said. crimination based on sexual orienta“In addition, my ticket was bought tion in employment, housing, statein Switzerland. Thus, the contract belessness, or access to education or tween Swiss Air lines and the passenhealth care. Sexual orientation could ger falls under Swiss law. In this reconstitute the basis for harassment, gard, I will seek a trial in Switzerland. blackmail, or other actions. No such I will also demand a complete investicases were reported.” gation into the basis of crimes against The entry continues: “On June 13, me in the form of illegal deprivation Riyadh police arrested 67 men from of freedom and kidnapping.” the Philippines for drinking and (Though he speaks English fluentdressing in women’s clothing at a prily, Alekseev’s primary lengthy account vate party. According to their emof his ordeal was written in Russian bassy, police released the men to their

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Honduran policeman sentenced for stabbing trans woman

GayRussia.ru

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Honduran police officer Amado Rodríguez Borjas will spend 10-13 years in prison after being convicted September 9 in a stabbing attack on a transgender woman in Tegucigalpa.

The woman, Nohelia Flores Álvarez, was abducted and stabbed 17 times on December 18, 2008, after she refused to have sex with Rodríguez when he approached her in public, Human Rights Watch said.

“The case was fraught with acts of intimidation, with police, a witness and prosecutors as well as Nohelia threatened by anonymous attackers and callers,” said Human Rights Watch researcher Juliana Cano Nieto.

“On March 21, unknown men kidnapped Nohelia and threatened to kill her if she continued with the case. She was shot in the arm in the ensuing struggle with the kidnappers but managed to escape.”

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights ended up providing protection to Flores and some other people involved in the case.

Human Rights Watch says that “nearly every” transgender person it has spoken with in Honduras has told of personal “harassment, beatings and ill-treatment at the hands of police.”

George Michael sent to jail Gay pop singer George Michael was jailed for eight weeks in London on September 14 for crashing his car into a building in July after apparently mixing marijuana and prescription drugs.

The court also took away his driver’s license for five years and fined him nearly $2,000.

It was Michael’s fourth incident of being caught driving while seemingly impaired, and his second conviction on such charges.

60 LGBT protesters arrested in Kathmandu Around 60 LGBT protesters were arrested in Kathmandu, Nepal, September 14, apparently for demonstrating too close to government buildings.

They were demanding that the government issue identity cards to transgender people showing that their sex is neither male nor female but rather a “third” reality.

Gay member of parliament Sunil Babu Pant said on Facebook that he was among the detainees.

“We had a meeting with prime minister today,” he wrote September 16. “He said he would solve the citizenship ID problem soon, but we need to keep the pressure.”

Israeli Supremes: City must fund gay center The Israeli Supreme Court ruled September 14 that the city of Jerusalem must fund the LGBT community center, Jerusalem Open House, the same as it funds other social groups’ institutions.

JOH Executive Director Yonatan Gher said the decision follows “years of homophobic refusal of City Hall to support the JOH and its activities (and) almost five years of legal struggle.”

“The direct result of this groundbreaking ruling is that no official body within Jerusalem will be able to discriminate gays, lesbian, transgender and bisexual people as a policy,” Gher said.M Bill Kelley contributed to this report.

COMMUNITY

NEWS

photos: Lydia Gonzales

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23 September 2010 . eBAR.com . BAY AREA REPORTER

Signs for the four supervisorial candidates are cropping up in District 8.

Campaign signs play key role in District 8 race he city’s Castro District these days is ground zero for the candidates seeking the District 8 seat on the Board of Supervisors. Banners promoting the four contenders are draped over buildings and hang in storefront windows.

And election signs are increasingly taking up residence in the windows of the gayborhood’s houses and apartment buildings.

While some residents may abhor the cluttered landscape – or just hate the look of a particular candidate’s signs – there is good reason why the campaign materials are so ubiquitous, not only in the Castro but also in Noe Valley, Diamond Heights and Glen Park.

“The larger the office you are running for the less it matters about the sign. For candidates for a Board of Supervisors race, these are not household names say like Jerry Brown,” the Democratic nominee to be California’s next governor, said Stephen Farnsworth, an assistant professor of communication at George Mason University. “People don’t know oftentimes who these candidates are and don’t have a sense for which candidates to focus on. When you walk around the neighborhood, you can see who is popular with your friends by whose signs are visible.”

Farnsworth, who wrote the book Spinner in Chief: How Presidents Sell Their Policies and Themselves, said that campaign signs for local races have taken on even more importance in recent years as local news outlets have reduced their election coverage.

“When there are big races going on, like in California where you have competitive governor, senator and House races, it is very easy for candidates in local office to not get attention. They often get ignored,” said Farnsworth. “The current problems in the news business mean everybody is cutting back, and where cutbacks are most severe is local news.

So candidates that might have been a household name 20 years ago are no way household names now, unless they do the legwork.”

Plus a campaign sign with a unique twist or design can get people talking about a certain candidate.

Such was the result eight years ago when Supervisor Bevan Dufty first sought the District 8 seat and used a symbol some likened to a man with a television for a head on his campaign signs.

While his detractors derided the image by saying it depicted Dufty as an airhead, others embraced it as a fun icon and clamored to get a hold of T-shirts emblazoned with it.

Dufty is now using the Aztec-like icon for his mayoral campaign; his mother, Maely Bartholomew, used the symbol when she was the entertainment editor of the Citizen-Call newspaper in New York City.

“Sometimes kitsch is cool,” said Farnsworth. “If the first struggle for a politician is to have people talking about them, an odd or different kind

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of sign can make that a reality.”

This year’s crop of District 8 candidates have taken that lesson to heart and come up with some rather unique – though some would say ugly or odd – campaign signs.

Deputy City Attorney Scott Wiener’s signs practically shout “Wiener,” which is the largest word on them and could be seen as playing off the sexual innuendo of his last name. His tagline simply states “Democrat for Supervisor.”

With a day-glo orange background and text in midnight blue, the signs visibly stand out. And not in a good way for some online commentators who have lambasted the color choice.

One person writing on the local SFist blog pleaded with Wiener to “please consider changing the color/layout of your DayGlo orange supervisor signs. They are ugly as sin. Sin made of toxic sludge.”

Another commenter noted that “it doesn’t matter if they’re ugly – it matters if they’re memorable. Which it seems that they are.”

Wiener said he chose the color scheme and simple design on purpose. His tagline refers to his being a past chair of the local Democratic Party, he said.

“We wanted to make sure the signs were visible and readable. A lot of times you can have very beautiful, artistic signs but no one notices them or can read what they are saying,” said Wiener. “We wanted to make sure they are eye-catching and can be read from a distance.”

He was unfazed to hear some people found the orange color atrocious.

“If people are talking about them that is a good thing. The feedback I have received from voters about the signs has been overwhelmingly positive,” said Wiener. “People like them and people think the color selection was smart because they are so visible and readable. The color makes a statement and a strong one.”

They not only depart from the usual colors candidates use but are also a clever tie-in to the upcoming Halloween holiday, said Farnsworth.

“Everyone does some color scheme with red, white and blue. So if you want to suggest you are a different kind of politician or get noticed in the crowd, then black and orange is the way to go,” he said. “As Halloween draws closer, it is not so clear those colors are going to be a disadvantage.”

Wiener isn’t the only one using orange this year; Assistant District Attorney Rebecca Prozan chose to go with a pumpkin and green color scheme. The signs say “Prozan for supervisor” above “Working for you.”

Jen Drake, a graphic designer who created the signs, said the Prozan camp was surprised to see Wiener use a similar color.

“We chose orange because, at the time, we thought we would be the only campaign with orange,” said Drake. “We wanted the color to be fresh and something that stood out.

That particular shade of orange then complemented with the accent color of apple green.“ Drake, who is also Prozan’s campaign manager, said she feels the signs have a fresh look. They also have visual cues meant to send clear messages to voters.

Two “o” letters – one in Prozan’s last name, the other in the word “working” – resemble gears that refer to her claim “Call Prozan, she’ll know what to do” on business cards she has been handing out to voters.

The “o” in the words “for” and “you” are stacked atop each other to form the number “8,” an obvious reference to the district.

“We wanted to create energy; Rebecca is dynamic,” said Drake.

“When we were first brainstorming we said that Rebecca is about the nuts and bolts. She is a person about fixing potholes and neighborhood services. She wanted a graphic that represented that.”

Prozan said she suggested using the number eight on the signs. She wanted to be able to communicate to voters what she believes is the core message of her campaign.

“The wheel gears refer to working for people. We are trying to embed what we think this campaign is about, who has the best track record of results and getting things done,” she said. “And that is where I think we shine.”

While local attorney Rafael Mandelman stuck with the tried-andtrue patriotic color scheme, he did break with political tradition by putting his own visage on his campaign signs. His head is shown in white and grey tones with black outlines; it serves as an explanation point at the end of his first name.

Farnsworth said using a photo or depiction of a candidate is frowned upon for a variety of reasons. Mainly, there is the problem of weather damaging the signs so they become aesthetically displeasing.

“It is hard to get a picture of a face the right color so it looks good after a rainstorm. If you try to create a lifelike image and it is out in the weather, out in the sun, out in the rain you run the risk of having a candidate looking pretty cadaverous by election day,” said Farnsworth.

“There is also the risk the picture gets defaced.”

It could also be used in ways the candidate, perhaps, never envisioned, added Farnsworth.

“One idea that occurs to me is it could be a cheap Halloween costume. You could take the picture off the sign and, boom, you have a Halloween costume for the kids,” he said.

“I am not sure it hurts the candidate but it is not what they were thinking when they created the sign.”

In an e-mail to supporters this week, Mandelman noted that “many people we are talking to in the community have seen our signs and have heard of that ‘bald guy.’” But he also wrote that “not enough know who [he] really is or what he stands for.”

In an interview Mandelman said

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by Matthew S. Bajko

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BAY AREA REPORTER . eBAR.com . 23 September 2010

NATIONAL

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Catholics for Equality group launched

by Chuck Colbert he voice of Catholic Church hierarchy from Maine to California is shrill but clear: Oppose all LGBT equality, especially same-sex marriage.

And yet support for full LGBT equality – even same-sex marriage – among Roman Catholics in the pews seems to be on the rise, according to recent public opinion polling.

So what’s a pro-equality Catholic supposed to do?

Get active and be political with a new national organization that seeks

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to mobilize “the more than 62 percent of Catholics who support freedoms for all people regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity,” according to a news release from Catholics for Equality based in Washington, D.C. During a conference call on Tuesday, September 14 that launched the new group organizers acknowledged it won’t be easy.

“We don’t have the capacity to use the church halls” or parish bulletins to organize, said founding board member Father Joseph Palacios, a sociologist, adjunct professor of sociology at Georgetown University, and priest of the Los Angeles Archdiocese. Palacios, who is Latino, also identifies as a celibate gay man.

He was active in marriage equality work in Washington, D.C. last year through Catholics United for Marriage Equality, which he organized.

Instead, Catholics for Equality is relying on “a state of the art website and a strategic use of social media” – including a soon-to-be-rolled-out smartphone app – to provide as board member Aniello Alito said, “American Catholics with role models, facts, and tips on how to have a family discussion, how to challenge misinformation in our parishes, and how to ensure as Catholics their voices are heard.”

Initially, Catholics for Equality plans to rely on the power of social media.

“We’ve built our website so that every page a supporter views, every time a user takes action, he can share that with friends on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Gmail, and other popular social networks and services,” explained Alito. “Our main goal from now until the end of the year focuses on encouraging and providing support for Catholic families, parishes, and communities to have honest and rational discussions about LGBT equality.”

Catholics for Equality has received assistance from several national LGBT organizations, including Dignity, a group for LGBT Catholics, and the Human Rights Campaign.

HRC spokesman Fred Sainz said that the organization lent Catholics for Equality meeting space and “sup-

Leather M

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Should he be elected, he said, “I’m a leather guy, and one of us will be represented at City Hall for the first time.”

Meko’s campaign will have a booth at the Folsom Street Fair.

Among his D6 projects is establishing social heritage districts to preserve the neighborhood’s LGBT and Filipino institutions.

“The Eagle is a perfect example,” Meko said, referring to a popular South of Market leather bar. “They don’t own the building, they own the bar. There’s a property owner that has made it clear to them that one of these days that place is going to get knocked down and condos will go up. This [social heritage district] would make that quite difficult. At least, it would require replacement of the existing facilities.”

Much like the larger LGBT community, the leather community didn’t always enjoy as much clout as it does today.

“There was a point at which the gay population in San Francisco was not considered a political constituency. They were considered a bunch of perverts who should be arrested,” said Rubin. “That began to change with [Imperial Court founder and 1961 Board of Supervisors candidate] Jose Sarria ... Over time, local politicians began to see the gay population as a constituency, and they began going to the gay

Courtesy Phil Attey

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Catholics for Equality acting director Phil Atte

ported some of their start-up costs at less than $10,000.”

A former HRC staffer, Phil Atte, is presently the unpaid acting executive director for Catholics for Equality.

A specific way to facilitate conversation, Catholics for Equality suggests, is for supporters to host parish brunches or coffee hours in homes and restaurants where “people-inthe-pew” Catholics, what organizers call the “moveable middle,” can hear from community and parish leaders and supporters of LGBT equality.

In Maine, for example, Religious Coalition Against Discrimination has obtained a grant to set up conversations among parishioners, meeting in small groups after Mass during coffee hour.

“The idea is to bring gay and lesbian couples and straight couples together one-on-one,” with the objective of reaching “people not opposed to marriage and LGBT rights, but who are uncertain what that would look like,” said board member Anne Underwood.

“We are finding creative ways to have dialogue in places where it is being suppressed,” said Attey.

The brunch strategy is brilliant, said founding board member Eugene McMullan of San Francisco.

“It could have been invented in the Bay Area. We love brunch,” he added. “And what could be more

bars to look for votes.”

These days, the boundaries of the leather community are difficult to determine. In its early post-war days, Rubin said, “leather was really mostly about gay masculinity, and it was [also] very much about gay men who were into motorcycles or who favored leather gear. It also had an association with people who liked kinky sex.”

These days, the community’s loose definition has expanded to include women and even heterosexuals.

The Bay Leather Alliance seeks to unite some of those diverse constituencies. “We’re a group of groups,” said Vanlaarz. Of the community, he said, “it’s very decentralized. There isn’t one particular leader.”

But, Moshoyannis pointed out, “there are different people leading different aspects of the community.

We each take on our different role,” from events to leather title-holders to fundraising and philanthropy.

“The leather community raises a ton of money, and the people who are doing that work are leaders in the community,” said Sibley. The Leather Walk raised over $10,000 this year, she said, and pointed out that the Bay Leather Alliance has a grant fund for members of the community who needs help with medical expenses. The Bears of San Francisco have raised half a million dollars for various groups. Beneficiaries of Ms. Leather include the Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center,

subversive, since we don’t have equal access, while at the same time most of us at the parish level are proLGBT and utterly unsympathetic to the erring bishops. And we already have a brunch captain signed up for the parish of the Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland, no less, in Oakland Bishop [Salvatore] Cordileone’s own backyard.”

A doctoral candidate in history at Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, McMullan is the founder and lead organizer for Catholics for Marriage Equality in California (www.jointhecatholicimpact.com).

He serves on the board of the local Dignity chapter and is a parishioner at Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in the Castro.

“It is imperative that we come together against the anti-gay bishops,” McMullan said. “We have to do it for ourselves, as a matter of principle, and to save the church we love. The anti-gay, anti-marriage activism of our ‘shepherds’ is appalling and brings discredit to the Body of Christ, which should be about the Father’s business of saving souls and building the kingdom, not obstructing civil rights.”

Catholics for Equality is not about church ministry. Rather, its political focus is to channel netroots and grassroots supporters to become active in pro-equality state legislative and ballot measure campaigns.

“We [also] are not a church reform group,” said Palacios. “We are not going to handle doctrine. We can’t change that. That is the church’s thing. We don’t even have the illusion that we as Catholics can do that.”

Accordingly, he added, “What we are doing is public action and public education on public issues. We are helping the Catholic movable middle rethink their positions. They are a fair-minded people. They want to do the right thing from their American core values and the heritage of Catholic social justice values.”

That approach suits California Catholics just fine, said McMullan.

“We are a people power, peace and justice church.”M For more information, visit www.catholicsforequality.org.

the Transgender Law Center, and Women’s Leather History Project.

“What Ms. San Francisco Leather is is an ambassador of the leather community,” Sibley said. Outreach is critical, she added. “It’s just like gay people, us being out about who we are in the world. I think the same thing is true about leather people. As you meet real leather people, you see that we are just like everyone else.”

The Ms. San Francisco Leather contest will select a new titleholder on October 2 at the Hotel Whitcomb.

Over the years, that outreach has yielded dividends, particularly when approaching sympathetic ears in city government.

“Sometimes we need help to mediate relationships between us and city and county departments,” Moshoyannis said, “everything from the SFPD and Department of Public Works to the Department of Parking and Traffic. So they help us navigate the internal system, and help us make sure we’re talking to the right people.”

“It’s necessary for all so-called alternative lifestyles to have political representation to protect our civil rights,” said Vanlaarz. “In regularly having contact with politicians, we let them know that we’re constantly out there, so if something comes up we have already built up a relationship.”M The Folsom Street Fair takes place along Folsom Street from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, go to www.folsomstreetfair.org.

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23 September 2010 . eBAR.com . BAY AREA REPORTER

COMMUNITY

NEWS

Dufty expresses concerns about SF Pride issues S

It’s important to maintain community and public trust, and Pride’s leadership needs to be forthcoming...”

– Supervisor Bevan Dufty fray and said more disclosure is needed from Pride officials. His comments came in the wake of several articles in the gay press detailing Pride’s current budget shortfall and the lower payments to beverage partners.

“I’ve been concerned about some of the letters and e-mails I’ve seen around revenues and disbursements, especially around beverage booths,” Dufty said in an interview with the B.A.R. “It’s no surprise this has been a challenging year for Pride, given its reliance on sponsorship and the reality that many companies cut sponsorships first in difficult times.”

He added, though, “It’s important to maintain community and public trust, and Pride’s leadership needs to be forthcoming” and explain its financial and business matters.

“I’m certainly looking for possible

sponsorships that can get the ship on the right course leading to 2011,” he said.

One of those sponsorship ideas might be Target.

In a September 13 e-mail, Troy Coalman, Pride’s associate director of development, told Dufty that he and sponsorship director Eddie Valtierra “would like to invite [Target] to become ‘year round’ sponsors of SF Pride at such a time that it is appropriate, lord only knows they need some good PR right now.”

That last comment was apparently in reference to news this summer that Target made a $150,000 donation to Minnesota Forward, an independent expenditure committee supportive of Tom Emmer, the anti-gay Minnesota Republican gubernatorial candidate.

CEO Gregg Steinhafel later apologized

Supervisor Bevan Dufty has been talking with Pride officials.

to his gay employees.

Dufty’s office provided the B.A.R. with the e-mail after the paper requested any correspondence about this year’s Pride.

Dufty said that he met this week with Coalman and Valtierra and told them that he’s not interested in a sponsorship arrangement with Target until the problems with the company are resolved. Target is looking to open stores in San Francisco.

“I have been in frequent discussion with Target, but not specifically about Pride,” he said. He said the talks have

involved “a larger issue to reconciling their actions in Minnesota and then, once that happens, beginning a new chapter in San Francisco.”

Dufty said Target needs to contribute to an organization working toward marriage equality to “balance out” the $150,000 contribution to Minnesota Forward.

Jessica Carlson, a Target spokeswoman, confirmed that Target has met with Dufty.

As far as an additional contribution, Carlson wrote in an e-mail, “At this time, we believe it is impossible to avoid turning any further actions into a political issue, and we will use the benefit of time to make thoughtful, careful decisions on how best to move forward.”

Calls for resignations In a mass e-mail last week, former Pride board member Kelly Rivera Hart said he was “beyond anger” over how Pride’s leadership was “trying to blame everyone but themselves for the current situation,” and he called for Andre and the current board’s resignation.

In an e-mail to Dufty, also forwarded by his staff, Barry Skown, a beverage volunteer, criticized Pride’s handling of the supposed miscalcula-

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an Francisco Supervisor Bevan Dufty said he has concerns about the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee as the organization acknowledged that a dozen community partners have yet to be paid in full from this year’s event.

Amy Andre, executive director of the Pride Committee, told the Bay Area Reporter this week that 12 of its community partners still have not been paid in full for this year’s celebration. That comes a month after the check distribution party.

But in a September 17 e-mail, Andre wouldn’t say how much money was still owed.

Her message was in response to the paper’s questions about payments to partners. Mikayla Connell, Pride’s board president, has said corporate sponsorship money has been slow to come in this year.

Andre and Connell have also blamed an accounting error for overpayment to beverage partners in previous years, meaning several of those partners received payments substantially lower than they had expected this year. That “accounting error” has been disputed.

Meanwhile, Dufty has entered the

Rick Gerharter

by Seth Hemmelgarn

MEUSA bridge walk Sunday on Golden Gate arriage Equality USA will hold its seventh annual bridge walk across the Golden Gate Bridge on Sunday, September 26. The event is being held in solidarity with Marriage Equality New York’s march across the Brooklyn Bridge, which takes place at the same time.

In San Francisco, the event starts at 9 a.m. at Crissy Field with speakers, including state Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) and a short conference call with N EWS marchers in New York City. Then, it’s on to the Golden Gate Bridge. Participants should note that the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District does not allow signs or banners on the famed span.

Instead, everyone who registers for the walk will receive a MEUSA T-shirt, which is how the group’s message will be visible to passersby on the bridge,

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said spokeswoman Molly McKay. “We are a visible presence with everyone in the same T-shirt and the message on the front and back of the shirts,” McKay said.

McKay urged people to attend to celebrate Chief U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker’s decision last month that overturned Proposition 8, California’s same-sex marriage ban. That case, known as Perry v.

Schwarzenegger, is now on appeal to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

“As we proceed through the courts, we need to continue to build support with the court of B RIEFS public opinion,” said Pamela Brown, MEUSA policy director. “We need to be visible and we need our voices heard.”

In fact, a poll by the Associated Press and the Constitution Center released last week shows 52 percent of those surveyed believe the federal government should give legal recog-

nition to marriages between couples of the same sex. That’s up from 49 percent in a 2009 survey. Last week’s poll was conducted with 1,007 adults between August 11-16. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

Participation in the bridge walk is free. Sunday night there is a VIP fundraising event with Margaret Cho in Napa. For more information, www.marriageequality.org.

cisco, his daughters Dana DobrowCurtis of Stockton and Michelle Dobrow of San Francisco, his son Patrick Dobrow of Spokane, Washington, his sisters, and his many friends in Puerto Vallarta and San Francisco.

At his request, no services will be held. Contributions may be made to The Friends of the Library, Visual Aid of San Francisco or the Stop AIDS project.

helped to develop their volunteer program.

Before settling in San Francisco, McVey lived on women’s land in Oregon and in California and traveled around the country helping to organize the older women’s movement.

She was active in gatherings of the Older Women’s Network (OWN), which was vital to the creation of Old Lesbians Organizing for Change (OLOC). She was committed to promoting a positive view of aging, activism, and independence for old women and was uncompromising in her dedication to women’s liberation.

She also felt a powerful identification with Native Americans. One of her favorite activities was a great roaring fire on the beach by the ocean, whether for her raku pottery or for a picnic.

McVey was an activist and a loving supporter to friends and family at all times. With her fierce concern for the earth, she educated everyone around her to be aware and care about ecology and the environment. Her art, which has been widely exhibited and featured in a number of publications, became focused on the current risk and damage to all of nature, especially to fish and humans.

For over ten years McVey participated in an OLOC support circle

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Obituaries >> Brian Alexander Dobrow February 19, 1934 – September 9, 2010

Brian Dobrow left this life on September 9, 2010 in San Francisco as a result of complications from renal cancer.

For Brian, life was an exciting adventure that included his partner, his children, the ballet, world travel, and a 45-year professional career in public health administration. From 1985 until his retirement from the AIDS office of the San Francisco Department of Public Health in 2001, he devoted himself to HIV prevention and the care of people with AIDS. He served on statewide and national advisory bodies including the Governing Board of the American Public Health Association, the California Public Health Association and the California HIV Prevention Council. In addition, he served as the executive director of several Bay Area non-profit health agencies.

He is survived by his life partner of 30 years, Thomas Outt of San Fran-

Jess McVey February 12, 1918 - June 28, 2010

Jess, who liked to be called McVey, is described by her family as a tomboy, daughter, sister, sailor, wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, organic gardener, nature lover, librarian, fisher, free thinker, civil rights activist, world traveler, anti-war activist, feminist, hippy, philatelist, forester, rock hound, lover, lesbian, unique artist, sculptor, painter, AIDS volunteer, LGBT activist, environmental activist, and friend.

McVey was one of the first volunteers in the initial AIDS ward at San Francisco General Hospital and

Homeless choir debuts Singers of the Street, a new choir of homeless or disadvantaged people and those who support them, will make its debut as special guests at the “Freedom Dreams” concert presented by the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band Friday, September 24 at 8 p.m. at Ebenezer/herchurch Lutheran, 678 Portola Drive in San Francisco. Freedom Dreams is a free concert celebrating the rich history of the struggle for social justice. A reception and photo exhibit by Woman’s Eye Gallery follows the concert.

SOS is directed by Kathleen McGuire, who recently announced she is leaving her position as artistic director of the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus following the group’s Christmas Eve concerts. She decided to start the homeless choir as a protest to Proposition L, the sit/lie measure on the November ballot.

SOS will join the Freedom Band, directed by Jadine Louie, to perform John Williams’s “Dry Your Tears, Afrika,” from the movie Armistad.

The choir will be supplemented by members of Metropolitan Community Church-San Francisco’s Choir of Many Names, directed by Ryan Connolly, and the MCC-SF worship and praise team directed by Stephanie Smith.

“Many of our singers have never sung for an audience,” McGuire said.

“They’re very fired up about this concert.”

SOS meets weekly at MCC-SF, 150 Eureka Street, every Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. A free lunch is provided. For more information,

visit www.singersofthestreet.org.

with eight others in San Francisco, sharing the experiences, feelings, choices, and challenges of living fully until death. In that group she announced that when she was dying, she wanted to have her bed in the middle of a forest and full of lesbians.

Her OLOC Circle didn’t quite make that happen, but they were nearby and will always cherish and miss her.

which had kept him hospitalized for almost a year. He had retired from United Airlines at San Francisco Airport in 1998 after some thirty years of service and moved back to Alabama to live with his family.

Gary, who lived South of Market during his almost twenty years in San Francisco, loved cats, visiting all the bars in his neighborhood, and meeting new people. He was a warm and wonderful friend who will be missed by all who had the good fortune to meet him.

Gary is survived by one brother, two nephews and several greatnephews and -nieces.

John Gary Young November 6, 1943 – September 11, 2010

John Gary Young died in Birmingham, Alabama from an ongoing heart condition after a lengthy illness

Tenderloin community fair The 15th annual Tenderloin Community Health and Safety Fair will take place Saturday, September 25 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and people are invited to enjoy a day of fun, live music, health screenings, and information about community resources in the Tenderloin.

The fair will be located at the Tenderloin Children’s Playground, 570 Ellis Street (between Leavenworth and Hyde).

A number of companies and organizations are sponsoring the fair, including the San Francisco Hilton Hotel, which will provide sandwiches to the first 450 fairgoers. The North of Market/Tenderloin Community Benefit District, California Pacific Medical center, Saint Francis Medical Center, and Kaiser Permanente are also sponsoring the event.

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Novosel, who grew up in San Francisco and has lived in Berkeley for 46 years, where he and his wife raised three sons.

Arreguin contends because he is willing to stand up to the mayor and downtown business interests he is being targeted at the ballot box along with his former boss, openly gay Berkeley City Councilman Kriss

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Health care community forums Two upcoming forums will look at the federal health care reform bill, parts of which are soon going into effect.

On Monday, September 27 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. the LGBT Health and Human Service Network, a project of the Equality California Institute, will hold a forum on the new law and its impact on the LGBT community. Speakers include David Hansell, acting assistant secretary for

SF Pride tion, and wrote that his soccer team’s fixed costs rose from $989 last year to $9,952 this year.

The city’s Grants for the Arts office provided $58,400 to Pride this year.

Skown wrote that the Board of Supervisors should do a full investigation of the situation. He also said Andre and Pride’s board should resign.

Connell said that Andre would not resign, but she said that she herself wanted to step down last year. However, she said she was asked to stay on because Lindsey Jones resigned as executive director.

Connell said it “has yet to be determined” whether she’ll remain. “If I can find a qualified replacement, I’m out of there,” she said.

Connell also said it looks like

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But that was no confidence that all 59 Democrats would agree. Reports were circulating even as late as Tuesday afternoon that Senator Jim Webb (D-Virginia) might balk. But in the end, Webb stuck with Democrats and voted to proceed.

Once Reid saw the repeal effort was going to lose, he voted no, but it was a procedural maneuver so that he can bring the measure back up.

California’s two Democratic senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, voted to proceed.

Pro-repeal advocates identified seven moderate Republicans they thought might be persuaded to vote for cloture, but on Monday, one of those – Olympia Snowe of Maine – said no, and on Tuesday morning Susan Collins of Maine and George LeMieux of Florida joined her in refusing to cross the partisan divide.

Snowe said she believes DADT warrants a “thorough review,” but she said the Senate should hold off its vote on repeal until after the Pentagon submits its report on implementation of repeal. The report is due December 1.

Snowe also said she objected to Reid’s limiting of debate to just three amendments.

Collins, who supports the DADT repeal language, expressed anguish at Reid’s limiting the amendments. Even though she supports repeal of DADT, said Collins, “I will defend the right of my colleagues to offer amendments on this issue and others. They deserve to have a civil, fair, and open debate on the Senate floor.”

Senator Scott Brown (R-Massachusetts) said on the floor Tuesday morning that he, too, would oppose

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Worthington, who is also up for reelection.

“We believe in standing up for what is best for our constituents and what is best for Berkeley as a whole,” he said. “Because we have been outspoken progressive voices on the council, we are being targeted for removal by real estate interests, landlords and the mayor.”

Bates and a majority of council members have dual endorsed Panzer and Novosel. Yet both dismiss suggestions they won’t be indepen-

dent on the council.

“He has accused me of being in the pocket of the mayor or something like that,” said Novosel. “I don’t think the mayor is going to like me when I start talking about preservation.”

Panzer said he is running for council to do what is best for the city.

“I am going to base my votes on that and not on how anyone else is voting or how anyone else wants me to vote,” he said.

Panzer entered the race to advo-

cate for more housing and jobs in Berkeley, where he has lived for the last seven years. He moved to the city to attend UC Berkeley where he majored in environmental science and city planning.

“Those issues of sustainability and Berkeley’s environmental goals really motivated me to get into the race and take a stand for those things,” said Panzer. “I don’t think the incumbent has done the best.

Unfortunately he has voted against a lot of things I think Berkeley needs.”

Born in San Francisco, Arreguin interned as an aide for a number of San Francisco supervisors at City Hall and served on the city’s youth commission, on which he advocated for a controversial LGBT homeless youth shelter in the Castro.

After graduating in 2007 from UC Berkeley with a degree in political science, he went to work as an aide for Worthington. Mistaken by some as being gay, Arreguin is straight. He serves on the board of

children and families for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; and Herb Schultz, regional director of HHS. EQCA Executive Director Geoff Kors will moderate.

Regarding the impacts of the health care reform law on people living with HIV/AIDS, Project Inform will hold a town hall meeting on that topic on Wednesday, September 29 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the San Francisco Friends Meeting House, 65 9th Street (at Mission).

The meeting, co-sponsored by the San Francisco HIV Health Services Planning Council, will look at

what aspects of the health care reform law are being implemented now and what will happen in 2014.

Anne Donnelly, director of health care policy at Project Inform, will be one of the panelists.

following areas of the city: Balboa Terrace, Haight-Ashbury, Forest Hill, Inner Sunset, Marina, the Mission, North Beach, Pacific Heights, Potrero Hill, Presidio, Presidio Heights, Seacliff, Twin Peaks, and Upper Market.

Pollworkers operate polling places on Election Day and assist voters in every part of the voting process. They must attend a training class prior to the election. Lead pollworkers must also pick up materials before Election Day and transport them to their assigned polling place on the morning of the election.

Applicants must be U.S. citizens, age 18 or older, and registered to vote in California. (The deadline to register to vote in the November 2 election is October 18.) Non-citizens who speak Cantonese, Mandarin, or Spanish are encouraged to apply to work as translators.

Applicants must complete the online application at www.sfelections.org/pw. All positions are oneday assignments and pay between $125-$170. For more information, call the Department of Elections’ pollworker division at (415) 5544395.M

Pride’s deficit will be $90,000 or less by the end of the fiscal year, down from the approximate $99,000 she announced at the September 12 membership meeting. Pride’s budget this year is $1.5 million.

In its budget for the 2010-11 fiscal year, Pride has projected it will eliminate this year’s budget and have a surplus of about $40,000.

Connell said she didn’t know about Coalman’s e-mail concerning Target, and she also wasn’t aware of the company’s Minnesota contribution. She said such a move would “take them off our list of our potential sponsors.”

Asked if he would call for an audit of Pride’s books, Dufty said, “Not at this stage. ... I think this issue is kind of evolving right now and I’m hoping we can bring about some resolution.”M

D8 signs

attractive.”

“I have spent my time on the Board of Appeals trying to stop neighborhood blight and I have continued that tradition with my signs,” said Mandelman.

The least known of the quartet, business executive Bill Hemenger, also stuck with the American flag colors. Created by his partner, graphic designer Frank Lambetecchio, the sign’s most visual element is a white check mark above the “g” in his last name, which is spelled out in large white block lettering.

It lists his three top priorities – jobs, accountability, growth – and directs people to his website.

“Subliminally, the check says vote for Hemenger but it is about get out to vote more,” said Hemenger.

How different all four of the candidates are is reflected in the signs,

said Hemenger.

“It shows we are all totally individuals,” he said.

The signs also point to just how competitive the supervisor race is, with the candidates angling to have the most signs in windows.

“We have by far more signs than any other candidate and the message is we have deep grassroots support throughout the district,” claimed Wiener.

Prozan agreed it is important to have supporters display the signs.

“I think the window signs certainly are a demonstration of how much grassroots support you have in the neighborhood,” she said. “One thing somebody told me is when you are the candidate, you never feel you have enough house signs. I feel great about how many house signs I have.”M

ous individual branches of military oppose the repeal.

Reid noted during Senate morning business Tuesday that the DADT amendment had been generating “all the attention” for the defense bill vote. He emphasized that the DADT law “is not repealed” by the language in the bill. Instead, he noted, the language provides for a process by which the law can be repealed. That process requires that the president, the secretary of defense, and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff all “certify” in writing that they have read the Pentagon report on how best to implement repeal and have considered whatever recommendations are made in the report. They must further certify that the necessary regulations to accompany repeal have been developed and that repeal is “consistent with the standards of military readiness, military effectiveness, unit cohesion, and recruiting and retention of the armed forces.”

McConnell said the cloture vote on the defense bill was a political tactic by Democrats seeking to “show special interest groups that they haven’t forgotten about them.”

McCain, one of the most ardent opponents of DADT repeal, said he was not opposed to debating repeal but was opposed to bringing up the defense bill before the Pentagon survey of troops is completed.

“This is all about elections,” said McCain, who contended that voting Tuesday on DADT would be “ignoring” the views of the troops.

“We are pursuing the social agenda of the Democratic Party,” he said.

Vice President Joe Biden said last week he was vigorously working for passage of the DADT repeal, but his schedule on Tuesday kept him in meetings at the White House. The

White House issued a statement, through its Office of Management and Budget, on Tuesday morning expressing support for the overall defense authorization bill. The statement listed 15 areas of “concern.”

The fifth issue listed was DADT; the statement said it supports the language that calls for the certification process leading to repeal of DADT. On MSNBC Tuesday, Alexander Nicholson, head of Servicemembers United, criticized Reid for pushing the cloture vote without compromising on how many amendments could be heard.

“If Senator Reid would just budge a little bit and come to an agreement on a reasonable way to proceed, we could potentially get the votes. But so far, he’s not been willing to do that, unfortunately,” Nicholson said.

Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, called Tuesday’s vote a “frustrating blow.”

“We lost because of the political maneuvering dictated by the midterm elections,” said Sarvis. “Opponents to repealing ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ did not have the votes to strike those provisions from the bill.

Instead, they had the votes for delay.”

Sarvis expressed concern that chances for repeal will dim considerably following the midterms.

“We now have no choice but to look to the lame duck session where we’ll have a slim shot,” said Sarvis.

“The Senate absolutely must schedule a vote in December when cooler heads and common sense are more likely to prevail once midterm elections are behind us.”

As majority leader, Reid has the option to bring the cloture motion up again at any point.M

proceeding to the defense bill, saying he believed there should be an “open amendment” process.

Senator Carl Levin (D-Michigan), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Collins raised some “legitimate objections,” and he assured both senators there would be an “open process.” But he said there could be consideration of no amendments unless the Senate agrees to proceed to the defense authorization bill.

Reid did allow Republicans 15 minutes additional time to debate the motion and enabled Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) to propose a different procedure – one that would have apparently enabled unlimited amendments, the first 20 of which would have to be defense-related and none of which could relate to immigration. Reid, looking impatient, characterized McConnell’s proposal as partisan bickering per usual and objected, forcing the motion for cloture to vote immediately.

Republicans had been beating a drum for the past week that two of the three amendments Reid would allow were non-defense related and shouldn’t be part of the discussion. Log Cabin Republicans, which supports repeal of DADT, issued a press release Monday calling Reid’s limit on amendments “partisan tactics” and urging Reid to allow other amendments.

But Levin disputed that argument.

On the floor of the Senate Monday, he itemized all the non-defense related amendments that have been considered on the defense authorization bill in previous years – including years in which Republicans were in the majority. In particular, he emphasized an amendment offered in 2000 by Senator John McCain (R-Arizona), on campaign reform.

Pollworkers needed for election The San Francisco Department of Elections has announced that it is currently accepting applications for pollworkers for the upcoming November 2 general election. While many workers have already been recruited, Director John Arntz said that there are still openings in the

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what he is trying to communicate with the signs is simple.

“The message is to vote for Rafael Mandelman,” he said.

He admitted it is “a little weird” seeing himself gazing off into the distance on his signs all over the district.

But his designer liked the concept, as did the majority of people working on his campaign.

“People seemed to like the version with my head on them more than the ones that didn’t,” said Mandelman, who added he feels the signs refer to those used by candidates in the 1960s and 1970s. “It was sort of a tip of the hat to those older campaigns.”

Compared to his opponents’ signs, he joked that his are “far more

Lady Gaga Much of the news leading up to Tuesday’s vote was focused on the involvement of popular performer Lady Gaga, who has used her various media platforms in the last several days to direct attention to the effort to repeal DADT. On Monday, she led a rally in Portland, Maine, hoping to persuade the state’s two senators – Snowe and Collins – to vote for cloture on Tuesday.

Two of the three openly gay members of the House were critical of the Senate vote. The House passed the DADT amendment back in May, setting the stage for Senate action.

“I am disappointed to see that despite the concerted efforts of the administration and the House of Representatives, the Senate was unable to end this dishonorable law that requires members of our military to lie to their commanding officers,” Congressman Jared Polis (DColorado) said in a statement.

Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) maintained that “a handful of U.S. senators has today thwarted the will of 75 percent of the American people by blocking the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy.”

Baldwin was referring to recent public opinion polls that show an overwhelming majority of the American public supports repeal of DADT. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama) questioned Levin’s claims that top military leaders support repeal, saying Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen is an appointee of President Barack Obama and that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has not been an enthusiastic supporter of repeal. Sessions said Gates has simply “gone along” with Obama’s directive.

He noted that the chiefs of the vari-

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23 September 2010 . eBAR.com . BAY AREA REPORTER 17

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STATEMENT FILE A-033030400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as OTTOVAL,768 Delano Avenue, San Francisco,CA 94112. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, signed Nancy Otto. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco ,CA on 09/16/10.

MACINTOSH HELP * home or office * 19 years exp * sfmacman.com

SEPT.,23,30,OCT. 7,14 2010 STATEMENT FILE A-033035200

Rick 415.821.1792

It’s a letter from the IRS.

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We’ll fix your computer - PC or Mac at your home or office throughout the Bay Area

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The following person(s) is/are doing business as TOTAL COMFORT SPA,450 Jones Street, San Francisco,CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, signed Kathy Nguyen. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/20/10.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco ,CA on 09/20/10.

SEPT.,23,30,OCT. 7,14 2010

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BAY AREA REPORTER . eBAR.com . 23 September 2010

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LEGAL NOTICES SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT NOTICE TO PROPOSERS GENERAL INFORMATION The SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT (“District”), 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, California, is advertising for proposals for Request for Statement of Qualifications (RFSOQ) No. 15PR-510, on or about September 17, 2010, with proposals due by 2:00 PM local time, Tuesday, October 19, 2010.

DESCRIPTION OF SERVICES TO BE PROVIDED The District is soliciting the services of a consultant firm to provide professional services to assist and advise BART in the construction management activities and related issues associated with the retrofit of BART's Lafayette Station for BART's Earthquake Safety Program. A Pre-Proposal Meeting will be held on Monday, September 27, 2010. The Pre-Proposal Meeting will convene at 10:00 AM at the District's Offices, at 300 Lakeside Drive, 16th Floor, Conference Room No. 1600, Oakland, CA 94612. At the Pre-Proposal Meeting the District's Non-Discrimination Program for Subcontracting will be explained.

All questions regarding MBE/WBE participation should be directed to Ron Granada, Office of Civil Rights at(510) 464-6103 – FAX (510) 464-7587.

Prospective proposers are requested to make every effort to attend this only scheduled Pre-Proposal Meeting, and to confirm their attendance by contacting the District's Contract Administrator, Nestor Andaya at nandaya@bart.gov, prior to the date of the Pre-Proposal Meeting.

WHERE TO OBTAIN OR SEE RFSOQ DOCUMENTS (Available on or after September 17, 2010) Copies of the RFSOQ may be obtained: (1) By E-mail request to the District’s Contract Administrator, Nestor Andaya, nandaya@bart.gov.

(2) By written request to the District’s Contract Administrator, 300 Lakeside Drive, 17th Floor, Oakland, CA 94612. Reference RFSOQ 15PR-510 Construction Management Services for ESP Station Structure C Line Lafayette Station and send requests to Fax No. (510) 464-7650.

(3) By arranging pick up at the above address. Call the District’s Contract Administrator, Phone No. (510)464-6293, prior to pickup of the RFSOQ. Dated at Oakland, California this 14th day of September, 2010.

Kenneth A. Duron, District Secretary San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District 9/23/10 • CNS-1947693# BAY AREA REPORTER

NOTICE OF APPLICATION TO SELL ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are : William Gardner Clarke. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 71 Stevenson Street, Suite 1500, San Francisco, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at:598 Guerrero Street,San Francisco, CA 94110-1018.

Type of license applied for:

41-ON-SALE BEER AND WINE EATING PLACE SEPT. 23, 2010 STATE OF CALIFORNIA IN AND FOR THE COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE # CNC - 10 - 547103 In the matter of the application of Sarah Elizabeth Berrin for change of name and gender. The application of Sarah Elizabeth Berrin for change of name and gender having been filed in Court, and it appearing from said application that Sarah Elizabeth Berrin filed an application proposing that his/her name be changed to Sebastian Everett Berrin and his/her gender be changed from female to male. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Room 218 on the 28th day of October, 2010 at 9:00 am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name and gender should not be granted

AUG. 26,SEPT. 2,9,16, 2010

CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO HUMAN SERVICES AGENCY REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS #462

The San Francisco Human Services Agency (HSA) and its Department of Aging and Adult Services (DAAS) announce their intent to seek a qualified respondent toprovide community service for LGBT seniors and adults with disabilities The selected respondent must possess an understanding of An RFQ packet may be picked up at SFHSA, Office of Contract Management, 1650 Mission Street, Suite 300, on or after September 17, 2010, 2010. RFQ packets are available on the Internet at http://mission.sfgov.org/OCABidPublication/ Select “Consultants and Professional Services” from the Category Drop Down Menu and look for RFQ #462 For further information, e-mail Stella Chu at Stella.Chu@sfgov.org. Due date for responses is October 18, 2010 @3:00 PM. 9/23/10 • CNS-1950318# BAY AREA REPORTER

STATEMENT FILE A-032997800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as Tataki South, 1740 Church Street,San Francisco, CA 94131. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, signed Kenneth Zhu. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco ,CA on 08/30/10.

SEPT. 2,9,16,23, 2010 STATEMENT FILE A-032998500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as Supportive Spaces, 80 Austin Street,San Francisco, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, signed Patricia O’Neil. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/30/10.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco ,CA on 08/30/10.

SEPT. 2,9,16,23, 2010 STATEMENT FILE A-032978400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as Core Financial Group Investment and Insurance Services, 101 Montgomery Street,Suite 1300,San Francisco, CA 94104. This business is conducted by an individual, signed Brandon Au. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco ,CA on 08/19/10.

SEPT. 2,9,16,23, 2010 STATEMENT FILE A-032986500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as Kwok Shing Hong, 1150 Thomas Avenue,San Francisco,CA 94124.

This business is conducted by a corporation, signed David Cheung. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/04.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco ,CA on 08/23/10.

SEPT. 2,9,16,23, 2010 STATEMENT FILE A-032989400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as Bay Cities Construction,791 29th Avenue,San Francisco, CA 94121. This business is conducted by a general partnership, signed Michael Arwin. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco ,CA on 08/24/10.

SEPT. 2,9,16,23, 2010

STATEMENT FILE A-032993400

STATEMENT FILE A-032988200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as Architecture & Light, 60 Brady Street,San Francisco, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a general partnership, signed Darrell Hawthorne. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/15/96.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco ,CA on 08/26/10.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as Waxing 4 Men, 660 Market Street,Suite 219,San Francisco, CA 94104. This business is conducted by an individual, signed Steven F. Crovo. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco ,CA on 08/24/10.

SEPT. 2,9,16,23, 2010

SEPT. 2,9,16,23, 2010

STATEMENT FILE A-032999200

STATEMENT FILE A-032989900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as The Blue Chair Studio, 215 Noe Street,San Francisco, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, signed Jesus Marez. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco ,CA on 08/30/10.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as Elsewhere Fibers, 1159 Fell Street,San Francisco, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, signed Teresa A. McFarland. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco ,CA on 08/25/10.

SEPT. 2,9,16,23, 2010

SEPT. 2,9,16,23, 2010

STATEMENT FILE A-032999400

STATEMENT FILE A-032986200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as Noble Management, 600 Polk Street,San Francisco, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, signed Derek Bonner. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco ,CA on 08/30/10.

SEPT. 2,9,16,23, 2010

STATEMENT FILE A-032958600

STATEMENT FILE A-032998200

STATEMENT FILE A-033012000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as Pack Works, 948 Folsom Street,San Francisco, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, signed Noah Goy. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco ,CA on 08/10/10.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as ESCAPE TOURS TRAVEL,3071 Wrangler Road, San Ramon,CA 94582.

This business is conducted by an individual, signed Viktoriya Yemelyanova. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/27/10.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco ,CA on 08/30/10.

SEPT. 2,9,16,23, 2010

SEPT.9,16,23,30, 2010

The following person(s) is/are doing business as ROBERT MIZONO PHOTOGRAPHY, 150 Mississippi Street,Suite A, San Francisco,CA 94107-2524. This business is conducted by an individual, signed Robert Mizono. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/01/10.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco ,CA on 09/07/10.

STATEMENT FILE A-032989500

STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTICIOUS BUSINESS NAME: #0327459-00

The following person(s) is/are doing business as Poquito, 2368 Third Street,San Francisco, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, signed Richard Vila. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco ,CA on 08/24/10.

SEPT. 2,9,16,23, 2010 STATEMENT FILE A-032996600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as Snicklefritz, 716 Hampshire Street,San Francisco, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, signed Kristie Koehler. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco ,CA on 08/30/10.

SEPT. 2,9,16,23, 2010 STATEMENT FILE A-032999500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as Sweet Lime Restaurant, 2100 Sutter Street,San Francisco, CA 94115. This business is conducted by a corporation, signed Thasanee Ruthaiwat. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco ,CA on 08/30/10.

SEPT. 2,9,16,23, 2010 STATEMENT FILE A-032989100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as 1.Emac Home Loans, 2.LockDesk, 3.www.Lock-desk.com, 88 Kearny Street,3rd Floor,San Francisco, CA 94108. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, signed Brett McGovern. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/01/10.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco ,CA on 08/24/10.

SEPT. 2,9,16,23, 2010 NOTICE OF APPLICATION TO SELL ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES

The following person(s) is/are doing business as BEAST AND THE HARE, 1001 Guerrero Street,San Francisco,CA 94110.

This business is conducted by a limited liability company, signed Ian Marks. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/02/10.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco ,CA on 09/02/10.

SEPT.9,16,23,30, 2010

SEPT.16,23,30,OCT. 7, 2010

STATEMENT FILE A-033004200

STATEMENT FILE A-033017300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as GIZMOWERKS, 39 Alma Street,San Francisco,CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, signed Andrew MacBride. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/11/10.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco ,CA on 09/01/10.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as 1.SHERRY ZARABI CONSULTING 2.BE LIGHTNESS, 590 6th Street,Unit 204, San Francisco,CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, signed Sherry Zarabi. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/10/10.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco ,CA on 09/10/10.

SEPT.9,16,23,30, 2010 STATEMENT FILE A-032980200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as TONGUE PUNCH, 1836 Rivera Street,San Francisco,CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, signed Matthew Cook. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco ,CA on 08/20/10.

SEPT.9,16,23,30, 2010 STATEMENT FILE A-033011700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as CHANG HONG MEAT MARKET, 1335 Powell Street,San Francisco,CA 94133. This business is conducted by a husband and wife, signed Chun Yan Lin. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/03/10.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco ,CA on 09/07/10.

SEPT.9,16,23,30, 2010 NOTICE OF APPLICATION TO SELL ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES

To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: DIEGO FERNANDO ESCOBAR. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 71 Stevenson Street, Suite 1500, San Francisco, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at:993 N. Point Street,San Francisco, CA 94109-1111.

Type of license applied for:

41-ON-SALE BEER AND WINE EATING PLACE SEPT. 16,23,30, 2010

41-ON-SALE BEER AND WINE EATING PLACE SEPT. 23,30,OCT.7, 2010

STATEMENT FILE A-033003100

STATEMENT FILE A-033006100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as GUMTREE STUDIO, 500 Clarence Street,Richmond,CA 94801. This business is conducted by an individual, signed Daniel Lunghi. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/31/10.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco ,CA on 08/31/10.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as ALL-POINT SOLUTIONS PLUMBING COMPANY, 1651 42nd Avenue,San Francisco,CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, signed John Lee. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/02/10.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco ,CA on 09/02/10.

SEPT.9,16,23,30, 2010

SEPT.16,23,30,OCT. 7, 2010

STATEMENT FILE A-033009500

STATEMENT FILE A-033012600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as J. GANZ STUDIOS,363 3rd Avenue,#3, San Francisco, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, signed Jason Ganz. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco ,CA on 09/03/10.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as HONEYBEE ACUPUNCTURE 766 Valencia Street,Suite 2B,San Francisco,CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, signed Kien Chou. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/01/10.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco ,CA on 09/07/10.

SEPT.9,16,23,30, 2010

SEPT.16,23,30,OCT. 7, 2010

STATEMENT FILE A-033005000

STATEMENT FILE A-033008600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as LA LENGUA, 2700 Sutter Street,San Francisco,CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, signed Sarah Alexander. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco ,CA on 09/01/10.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as LAW OFFICE OF DEREK DEAVENPORT, 1850 Grove Street,#4,San Francisco,CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, signed Derek Deavenport. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/01/10.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco ,CA on 09/03/10.

STATEMENT FILE A-032982300

STATEMENT FILE A-033006600

The following persons have abandoned the use of the ficticious business name known as ESCAPE TOURS TRAVEL, 425 1st Street, San Francisco, CA 94105. This business was conducted by a general partnership, signed Viktoriya Yemelyanova.

The ficticious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/30/10.

To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: SIMPLY SMART FOODS L-PSHIP. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 71 Stevenson Street, Suite 1500, San Francisco, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at:522 2nd Street,San Francisco, CA 94107-1427.

Type of license applied for:

SEPT.9,16,23,30, 2010

SEPT.16,23,30,OCT. 7, 2010

SEPT.16,23,30,OCT. 7, 2010 STATEMENT FILE A-032980600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as Adrian Bonilla Hair Design, 300 Divisadero Street,San Francisco, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, signed Adrian Bonilla. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/23/10.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco ,CA on 08/23/10.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as FUNKTECH TRUST CORPORATION, 816 B. Shotwell Street,San Francisco,CA 94110. This business is conducted by a general partnership, signed Matthew Horrigan. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/20/10.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco ,CA on 08/20/10.

SEPT. 2,9,16,23, 2010

SEPT.9,16,23,30, 2010

SEPT.16,23,30,OCT. 7, 2010

The following person(s) is/are doing business as ECO COPY,1323 Polk Street, San Francisco,CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, signed Nicolay Postarnakevich. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco ,CA on 08/20/10.

SEPT.16,23,30,OCT. 7, 2010 STATEMENT FILE A-033020100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as JOZY’S FOXY FAZION,790 JERROD AVENUE,San Francisco,CA 94124.

This business is conducted by an individual, signed Maria Guadalupe Garcia. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/27/10.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco ,CA on 09/13/10.

SEPT.16,23,30,OCT. 7, 2010 STATEMENT FILE A-033023600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as NAKARALI, 670 S. Van Ness Avenue,San Francisco,CA 94110. This business is conducted by a general partnership, signed Carole Nericcio. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco ,CA on 09/14/10.

SEPT.,23,30,OCT. 7,14 2010 SUMMONS:MARRON V. O’NEILL CASE #CGC09-495432 CROSS COMPLAINT SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO 400 MCALLISTER, SF, CA 94102 NOTICE TO CROSS-DEFENDANT: CUTTING EDGE PAINTING AND PLP PAINTING & DECORATING AND ROES 1 THROUGH 25 INCLUSIVE

YOU ARE BEING SUED BY CROSS-COMPLAINANT O’NEILL CONSTRUCTION You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this summons and legal papers are served on you to file a written response at this court and have a copy served on the cross-complainant. A letter or phone call will not protect you. Your written response must be in proper legal form if you want the court to hear your case. There may be a court form that you can use for your response.

You can find these court forms and more information at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp), your county law library, or the courthouse nearest you. If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask the court clerk for a fee waiver form.

If you do not file your response on time, you may lose the case by default, and your wages, money, and property may be taken without further warning from the court.

There are other legal requirements. You may want to call an attorney right away. If you do not know an attorney, you may want to call an attorney referral service. If you cannot afford an attorney, you may be eligible for free legal services from a nonprofit legal services program. You can locate these nonprofit goups at the California Legal Services web site(www.lawhelpcalifornia.org), the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp),or by contacting your local court or county bar association. Note:The court has a statutory lien for waived fees and costs on any settlement or arbitration award of $10,000 or more in a civil case. The court’s lien must be paid befor the court will dismiss the case.

The name and address of the court is :

SAN FRANCISCO SUPERIOR COURT 400 MCALLISTER, SF, CA 94102 The name, address, and telephone number of the of cross complainant’s attorney, or cross-complainant without an attorney,is. AYHAN M. MENEKSHE, Esq.,MENEKSHE CARDWELL & RUIZ, 16275 LOS GATOS Blvd.,LOS GATOS, CA. 95032. 408-358-1200 DATE: MAY 10,2010. CLERK OF THE COURT: M.RAYRAY,DEPUTY.

SEPT.16,23,30,OCT. 7, 2010

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COMMUNITY

Guest Opinion M

page 4

product of the worst economic crisis our country has seen since the Great Depression. As discussed earlier in this letter, non-profits all across the country are facing similar deficits, or much worse. Many, like New Leaf, have already gone out of business or will in the near future. Expecting Andre to completely insulate Pride from the effects of a global economic crisis that has caused donations to nonprofits to drop off precipitously is unrealistic. It is a credit to Andre (and the board, members, staff, and volunteers of Pride) that we have not been more severely impacted.

Second, the problem with beverage partner compensation started in 2006, three years before Andre came to Pride. Indeed, it was Andre (and our bookkeeper) who discovered and corrected the problem. No one is happy about the beverage partners making less money than they expected to, but Andre did not create this problem. She is one of the people who identified the error and solved it.

Finally, the B.A.R. was particular-

Berkeley the East Bay Stonewall Democratic Club and won the group’s endorsement.

“Because I have worked on LGBT issues, some people have assumed that” he is gay, said Arreguin. “For years I have been a strong supporter of LGBT issues, even when I was on the San Francisco Youth Commission.”

Panzer, however, is hopeful of drawing LGBT support to his candidacy.

“I would hope LGBT voters

M

ly critical of the new fundraising efforts undertaken by Pride since Andre was hired as executive director. For example, the B.A.R. reported on our May kick-off event, which cost us $30,000 to produce, but brought in only $24,000. What the B.A.R. fails to note is that most firsttime fundraising events do not break even, and the creation of permanent revenue streams usually takes time and money. Our kick-off party in May was the beginning of our campaign to develop a base of individual donors who will help diversify Pride’s income so that we are less dependent upon corporate donations, our beverage program, and gate donations.

The cost of the May event was an investment in the creation of that individual donor base. This is a longterm investment, not a short-term one. We do not expect it to pay off this year, or even necessarily next year. This is part of a strategic plan to diversify Pride’s income streams to help us better weather recessions, unforeseen events, and (quite literally) a rainy day.

These things do not happen overnight and they do not come for free. We must invest if we want to see

a return. And that is what this year’s additional fundraising efforts are about – long term returns. Calling for Andre to resign because our investment did not return immediate profits is both unfair and unrealistic.

In addition, the B.A.R. did not mention all the other things Andre has done at Pride in her short time here, and by not doing so, the reader fails to gain an accurate picture of a dedicated, hard-working, very intelligent and inspired individual. Since coming to Pride, Andre has, for example, completely rewritten our employee handbook, bringing Pride’s HR practices in line with current best practices. She has also brought on a professional fundraiser, Troy Coalman, who has begun expanding Pride’s fundraising efforts in directions Pride has never gone before (without giving up on our standard fundraising efforts) as explained above. She also reorganized the entire staff, so that now we can do more with less. And she eliminated some of our expensive contracts and brought work in-house, saving Pride tens of thousands of dollars.

In short, she did exactly what she was supposed to do – she led the pre-

mier Pride organization in our country through yet another fantastic event, which saw approximately one million people come to our city to educate, commemorate, liberate, and celebrate at Pride’s 40th anniversary.

That she was able to do this during the worst economic recession to hit our country since the Great Depression is a testament to her skill, dedication, and drive. Yes, Pride ran a deficit for the year, but with Andre’s help, we will overcome it this year.

Yes, we discovered a problem in our beverage partners program, but the problem wasn’t Andre’s fault, she is the one who found and corrected the problem. Yes, we lost money on some of our fundraising efforts this year, but that is because the money spent is a long-term investment that will help diversify Pride’s sources of funding and make us more resilient than ever in the years to come.

In sum, Andre should not resign.

We owe her an honest chance to prove what she can do as Pride’s executive director. It has been a stormy year, and we have certainly had our issues, but Andre is not the cause of the global economic crisis anymore than she is the cause for mistakes

made by other people years before she came to Pride. She is a dedicated, hardworking, intelligent, compassionate leader who deserves an honest chance to show what she can do.

Accordingly, we, the board of directors of Pride, stand behind her as we take Pride into the next decade.

As we make this journey, we count on LGBT publications, such as the B.A.R., to report fairly and accurately upon Pride and its people.

Only through fair and unbiased reporting can we hope to continue to attract the selfless volunteers, quality staff, individual donors, and corporate sponsors that make Pride possible. So, to that end, we ask the B.A.R. to give Andre a chance – please retract your request for her to resign and let us see what this amazing woman can do.M

would choose to vote for the LGBT candidate in this race,” said Panzer.

“At the same time, I am not running as a gay candidate but as a candidate who has good ideas for Berkeley. I want that to be the reason why people vote for me.”

With LGBT issues not a focal point of the race, Novosel hopes LGBT voters will support him as he has the most experience of any candidate in the race.

“I am a more mature citizen of Berkeley, that is a big difference,” he said. “I hope people vote for someone who has been an integral part of the city’s life, knows it well, and wants to keep improving it.”M

Health director

candidates turned down the job because of “the perceived dysfunction of the department, which is overseen

by Fujioka and the Board of Supervisors.”

In a statement Katz released Tuesday, September 21, he stated that he was intrigued by Fujioka’s offer, unlike other jobs he has turned down over his 20 years working in various capacities for San Francisco’s Department of Public Health.

“I was excited by the challenges the position would offer and possibilities of making a difference in the lives of people living without health coverage in Los Angeles,” stated Katz.

“We have been successful in San Francisco in providing health access to 58,000 of the 73,000 uninsured through our Healthy San Francisco program. LA has more than a million uninsured individuals and an urgent need for health services.”

Katz added that should the supervisors approve of his hiring and if they “come to a mutual agreement,” then he “would likely take the position.” He currently earns $260,000 a year and oversees 6,800 employees and a budget of $1.5 million. Unlike in San Francisco, where he reports directly to Mayor Gavin Newsom, he would have to answer to the five Los Angeles County supervisors.

It is unclear if he has the three votes for approval on the L.A. board.

None of the supervisors would comment about Katz when contacted by the Bay Area Reporter, citing the fact that the interview process was still incomplete.

San Francisco Health Commission President Jim Illig said any talk that Katz has the job is “premature” and questioned if the sudden announcement this week would jeopardize his chances.

“They may not even vote,” said Illig, a gay man who is the director of government relations at Project Open Hand. “No one knows what will happen. In politics when things get out prematurely it pisses people off. These are politicians who are about to make a big decision.”

Nonetheless, Illig said Los Angeles County would be lucky to have Katz as its health director.

“If he wants it he should get it,” said Illig. “He has dedicated his life to this city and department. He has the right to do other things.”

Supervisor Bevan Dufty agreed that Katz would be a perfect fit for the L.A. job.

“Los Angeles County is huge, with a million uninsured residents and a hospital system that needs attention.

I think he is the perfect candidate,” said Dufty, who has worked closely over the years with Katz on the health department’s budget and health concerns from AIDS to methamphetamine addiction.“Mark my words, Mitch will accomplish

great things in L.A.” Katz, 50, an openly gay man who is the adoptive father of two children, has made no secret of his desire to eventually resign from the job he has held for 13 years. He is the longest serving director of the Department of Public Health in the city’s history.

He first joined the department as head of the AIDS Office’s research branch in 1991. In December 1992 Katz became director of the AIDS Office, and in 1997, then-Mayor Willie Brown tapped him to run the health department, following the resignation of Dr. Sandra Hernandez, who left to run the San Francisco Foundation.

In 2007 Katz, who continues to see AIDS patients at San Francisco General Hospital, told the B.A.R. he planned to step down at the end of 2009 and possibly relocate his family to New York to be closer to his aging parents.

He said then that his leaving would be conditioned on three things: passing a bond to rebuild SF General, reopening Laguna Honda Hospital with assisted living services, and implementing the city’s universal health care access plan. He has since then achieved all three goals.

But last November Katz told the B.A.R. that he had no plans to leave the city until after Mayor Gavin Newsom’s term expired, as the mayor had told him he didn’t want to see him depart.

Now Newsom is in the running this November to be the state’s next lieutenant governor. Should he win the race, he would resign as mayor in January with one year left in his term. An interim mayor would serve out the remainder of the year and voters will pick a new mayor next fall whose term will begin in January 2012.

No matter the outcome of the election, it is questionable if anyone would want to accept the city’s health director post knowing that within a year a new mayor could come in and want to hire their own person for the job. Someone could step in on a temporary basis until 2012.

“If he leaves January 1, we have plenty of time to work out a transition plan,” said Illig. “Any way you look at it, Mitch Katz will be a hard act to follow, no question about it.

He has done an excellent job.”

Dufty, who is running to be the next mayor, would not discuss any specific administrators but said there were many qualified candidates to replace Katz from within the health department.

“Unquestionably, Mitch has grown the leadership in his department and that is a credit to him.

There are many people who could step in whether on a permanent basis or interim basis within DPH,” said Dufty. M

M

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page 16

NEWS

page 1

“Given the system that he runs in San Francisco and the similarities in both the mission and the type of services provided, he would be an outstanding candidate,” Fujioka told the Times.

The county’s five-member Board of Supervisors is expected to discuss hiring Katz in early October. The county has been without a permanent health director for more than two years, and the supervisors have rejected previous applicants for the position.

According to the Times, several

Mikayla Connell is president of the board of directors of the SF LGBT Pride Celebration Committee. All of the other board members also signed this piece: Nikki Calma, vice president; Belinda Ryan, treasurer; Lisa Williams, secretary; Jamie Fountain; Joshua Hardwick; Shawn Parker; Joshua Smith; and Todd Torr.

Triple play

Clonely heart’s club

Folsom: What’s in it for you?

Tarell Alvin McCraney trilogy kicks off in Marin

Kazuo Ishiguro’s dystopian romance novel Never Let me Go, goes cinematic.

Peruse a full schedule of leather and kink events.

page 25

page 28

page 32

Photograqpher Van Darkholme captures a handsome model on film and on the ropes.

o i t n S u a t j u b e g e Sw

by John Karr

I

collision that would splat me into smithereens. Of course, he always stopped just short of mashing his bike’s front wheel into my pre-pubescent privates. What a thrill it was to be bound and menaced by a beautiful man who ultimately showed mercy.

Then there was the really swell time my parents were out for the evening, and my brother had me hog-tied on my bed. Natch, the parents came home early. I was thrown under the covers, still tied up. My mother knelt by my bed and kissed me as I successfully pretended to be asleep. Rat out my brother? No way. I had to wait ages and ages, blissfully bound, until the folks went to bed and my brother could come and let me loose.

So I had a predisposition. Years later, I was surprised. Adults played bondage games? Count me in! Throw in my devout and ever-expanding cock worship, and you can see why I glommed onto Darkholme’s website, BoundGods.com. As I’m also into arty books of male photography, I was surely glad when the Master of Bound Gods received tribute in the form of a book.

This one’s right up your Folsom Street.

Poetic license • by David Lamble

Male Bondage (Bruno Gmünder, hardbound, $34.95) was originally published paperbound in 2006, when it slipped pretty much under the radar. Now it’s back, unchanged except for the sanctification of hard board covers. I don’t think there’s been a collection of full-color bondage photos so glamorously and aesthetically rendered. The potent masculinity of the models is only one thing that makes the 80-page collection so striking.

Certainly, Darkholme’s photographic technique is appreciable. Its plush, darkly rich colors and especially its presence and clarity of intent are masterful, as is his stylish rope-craft, the Japanese art of Shibatsu, which snares the viewer with calm strength and near meditational respite. It’s simple, yet strong. It allows Darkholme to show restraint while depicting restraint.

Here are captive enthusiasts in their favorite positions; defenseless, at someone else’s mercy, and left alone in their joyful pain.

More notably, it imbues his models with a nearly serene composure that encompasses the struggle to escape, and the accep-

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t’s a sure thing many of you have stories like mine. It all started for me with Buster Crabbe. The shiny blond, All-American, Olympic swimmer played Flash Gordon in the serials I saw each week at the Saturday Kid’s matinee. The merciless Emperor Ming of the planet Mongo had captured Flash! I didn’t really know why, or even care, because this was where Ming’s henchman bound the boldly spread-eagled, tortuously splayed Flash to a huge machine that flashed lightening bolts of electricity toward his writhing body that glistened with sweat and bulged with muscle as he struggled against his bonds. Whatta sight. I reenacted this scene a couple times playing Flash Gordon with my best friend, until his mother (a merciless Ming manqué) disallowed me from playing with him. She thought I was a little queer. She was right.

But there also was my brother, with his jet black hair and eyes as violet as Liz Taylor’s. I can’t remember how we developed the interesting game we played, but in his early teens, when I was seven or eight, we played it more than once. I’d be tied to a tree, and he would race toward me on his bike, threatening a

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Howl filmmakers discuss their risk-taking new film

t’s rare enough when a poem – a stylistically challenging and brazenly profane poem – gets to star in its own movie, a poem whose outlaw images are turned into graphic novel style animation. Filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (The Celluloid Closet) take some artistic risks and liberties as they embed us inside the mind of a mad homo poet, the twenty-nine-year-old Allen Ginsberg – played with a saucy élan by quick change artist James Franco.

Slip-sliding between a mesmerizing recreation of Ginberg’s first public reading of Howl, the obscenity trial of the poem’s publisher and a direct address account by Franco as Ginsberg of the Beat Movement’s unique queer/straight chemistry, Epstein and Friedman employ a stellar supporting cast: David Strathaim (as the prosecutor), Mad Men’s Jon Hamm as the brilliant defense attorney, Jake Ehrlich, along with Jeff Daniels, Mary-Louise Parker and Treat Williams to enhance a blend of fact, fiction and animation, showing how a poem helped launch a culture war.

Recently life partners and artistic collaborators Epstein and Friedman discussed the challenges of bringing Howl to screen. Our conversation is spliced into an earlier chat with Howl’s star James Franco.

Lamble: What were your fears about Allen Ginsberg as a subject?

Rob Epstein: The most daunting aspect was approaching a film about poetry.

Jeffrey Friedman: I grew up in that world in New York. My father published a literary magazine in the fifties in the West Village. My parents were separated and then divorced – my father had all these Beatnik girlfriends and we used to hang out at the Village Gate, where my parents, after they were divorced, worked the coat-check. I felt at home in that world; I read the Beats in high school, and to me it was very romantic.

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Aaron Tveit as Peter Orlovsky and James Franco as Allen Ginsberg in Howl.

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Physique pictorial ‘Bruce Sargeant and His Circle’ discovered his week we’re proud to bring you a small sample from the bounteous beauties on display in the new coffee-table art-book Bruce Sargeant and His Circle – Figure and Form by Mark Beard (Chronicle Books). English artist Sargeant (1898-1038) is only now being rediscovered for his interest in and devotion to the male form, most particularly the athlete. So it is tragic yet somehow telling that he met his premature end in a wrestling accident.

Beard provides the conO UT text for a generous selection of color plates showing the artist’s attention to the physique, in and out of gear for sports such as water polo and crew, wrestling and fencing.

The book places Sargeant in his art-historical niche without ever overstating the case for his relative importance. Still, the scholarship around this so-called circle of artists is impressive. The foreword is by Andy

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Warhol Museum director Thomas Sokolowski, and the book includes chapters on Sargeant’s teacher, the Ecole des Beaux-Arts-educated Hippolyte-Alesandre Michallon; Sargeant’s painting peer Edith Thayer Cromwell, friend to such heavyweight homosexuals as Carl Van Vechten and Marsden Hartley; and his archrival artist Brechtholdt Steeruwitz, who always had the knack, according to Sargeant, for saying the “perfectly wrong thing.”

Everybody must know someone like that. Out There had never heard of Sargeant (no relation T HERE to the great American artist John Singer Sargent) before perusing this book, but are glad to have made his acquaintance.

Courtesy Chronicle Books

by Roberto Friedman

Getting Shanghai’ed Here’s a passage from a book we just enjoyed, The Shanghai Gesture, a novel by Gary Indiana (Two Dollar Radio). It’s a description of a street scene in a dystopian London. “Solitary males used their phones to

Study for The Fencers, date unknown, oil on canvas, by Bruce Sargeant.

shave. Some transmitted their clearance cards to airport check-in counters. Still others, ears grafted to iMe’s, collided with utility poles and shop windows, enraptured by the iMe’s menu of simultaneous functions, notorious for scrambling the user’s belfry into euphoric obliviousness.”

Sound anything like today’s SF? Indiana’s novel, first published in 2009, shows all of his gifts for sharp satire and worldly wit while breaking with the modus operandi of his recent novels set on the cases of notorious murderers (Andrew Cunanan in Three Month Fever, Lyle and Erik Menendez in Resentment, Sante and Kenneth Kimes in Depraved Indifference). The genre-busting invention in Shanghai is wilder and more imaginative if no less gruesome in gore and mayhem than these previous efforts.

The cast of characters include a junkie physician, a clubfooted former STASI agent, a South American piya (village shaman), the notorious Dr. Fu Manchu and his pet marmoset Cutie, and a sleeper cell of pre-pubescent zombie “Cold Children” waiting for their master’s instructions to create havoc all over Britain. Still, Indiana knows where the real evil powers of our time lie. “Fu Manchu’s schemes for world rule might not be half as malignant as those of our indigenous politicians and corporate

magi, who are indistinguishable, and circulate between boardroom to government office and back again like rattlesnakes coiled about the hand grips of revolving doors.”

The paperback’s piquant cover design is by esteemed NYC artist Barbara Kruger.

Ridiculous series The film series Totally Ridiculous: The Lost Films of Charles Ludlam will screen Sept. 24-26 in the YBCA Screening Room, 701 Mission St., SF. Here’s the QT from YBCA: “Charles Ludlam was the visionary behind the notorious Ridiculous Theatrical Company from 1967-87.

From his Midnight camp extravaganzas Big Hotel and Turds in Hell to his celebrated gothic horror play The Mysteries of Irma Vep, Ludlam’s densely-layered queer satires embraced the ridiculousness of high culture and the seriousness of the low with drag pastiche and literary verve. The Sorrows of Dolores is one of two films Ludlam shot in the late 1970s, and was left unfinished at the time of his death from AIDS in 1987.

Until the recent digital re-mastering and the addition of a new score by original composer Peter Golub, it had not been seen in over 20 years.

Ludlam’s other film, the short Museum of Wax, will precede Dolores. To

close the series, we present Mark Rappaport‘s The Imposters, a rarelyseen film which stars Ludlam in a tour-de-force performance.” For more info: (415) 978-2787 or www.ybca.org.

Book plates A final few indignant comments of literary bent, and then we’ll let it go: San Francisco Chronicle writer Paul Devlin‘s recent review of The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings by James Baldwin (Pantheon, $26.95) discussed many aspects of Baldwin’s interests and achievements, but was utterly silent about his having been openly gay! Yet another example of consciously or unconsciously suppressing our history – perhaps unintended, but still inexcusable!

On a more positive note, rising with a bullet up the current Bay Area Best Sellers list is author Fifth Avenue 5 A.M. Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman by Sam Wasson. As far as we know, the Bay Area Reporter was the first (and perhaps only?) local publication to review it. After our article ran, Maureen Dowd devoted one whole edition of her inimitable New York Times column to it. Once again, les gays prove to be early adopters.M

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THEATRE

Triple play

by Richard Dodds housing project in the Louisiana bayous sounds like an oxymoron. Isn’t this the land of pirogues, not to mention jambalaya, crawfish pie, and file gumbo partaken on swampy shores? But rising-star playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney grew up in a housing project in the South, albeit in urban Miami, and autobiographical propensity may have led him to set the three parts of The Brother/Sister Plays in the stigmatized dwellings.

Then again, I’m swiping images from an old song for my impressions of southern Louisiana of the 21st century, but time and space lose their traditional moorings in the dramatically sumptuous first play in the heralded trilogy. In the Red and Brown Water is Marin Theatre Company’s contribution to a three-theater collaboration to stage the plays, and the spare-butrich production launches the project with graceful authority.

The play’s main character is Oya, a track star at her high school, who lives with her mother in a dwelling that is depicted as only a raised platform. It feels isolated but there is a constant stream of neighbors passing by, most with agendas that Oya seems, at first, an expert in juggling.

The early scenes have the strongest attachments to commonplace realities, though even they are imbued with stylized African storytelling and their American descendants. All the characters’ names, in fact, derive from Yoru-

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Vincent Anderson) and the lothario Shango (a dangerously magnetic Isaiah Johnson). Neither can give her what she so desperately wants, but she finds confidantes of sorts in the sexobsessed busybody Aunt Elegua (the hilarious Dawn L. Troupe) and the child-man Elegba (a twinkling Jared McNeill) whose bisexuality surprises Oya. “I didn’t know you was a gray boy,” she says.

Playwright McCraney is gay, and gay themes become more prominent in The Brother Size that opens this week at the Magic Theatre and are central to Marcus; of The Secret of Sweet that opens in November in ACT’s conclusion of The Brother/Sister Plays trilogy.

This historic cross-pollination by three of the Bay Area’s major theaters is daring, both for the logistical challenges and the choice to invest so heavily in a playwright unknown to

ba deities. The spirit Oya, for example, is both the overseer of the wind and gatekeeper of the cemetery. The play’s Oya runs like the wind, and early on we learn in a flash forward that mortality will also arrive on fleet feet.

The storytelling motif is enhanced by the playwright’s coy and evolving use of spoken stage directions. Oft times, they are used humorously. Oya says to the audience, “Oya laughs at her crazy mother,” and then turns to her mother and says, “Ha! You crazy.”

At other times, these direct addresses to the audience can emphasize an emotion or send irksome characters scurrying when the stage directions are delivered as a command more than a recitation.

In Ryan Rilette’s shimmering direction, a track meet that Oya handily wins is staged as an energized tableau, and in the following scene she is offered an athletic scholarship to college. She misses the opportunity in order to tend to her ailing mother, and the play changes gears as she adapts to a life of diminished dreams.

Motherhood becomes her obsession, even as she sees around her unplanned pregnancies and mistreated children. A teenaged father suggests to Oya that “it ain’t right to be just bringing babies in this world.” But Oya replies, “What else we got to do?” Besides, she adds, “Babies got some sunshine in ’em.”

Lakisha May is simply wonderful as Oya, a young woman engaged by life but whose spirit slowly erodes. She is torn between two men, the earnest Ogun (sensitively portrayed by Ryan

Frank fictions

by Richard Dodds id Silver hates Nazis. Sid Silver hates communists. And as for everybody between those extremes, well, they’re all spineless compromisers, profit-minded opportunists, or worse, Lillian Hellman, who sneaks around big office buildings intercepting his letters. Not surprisingly, Sid Silver has a fan base of one. Or maybe a plus one.

In Rinne Groff’s engrossing Compulsion at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, a nearly life-sized marionette of Anne Frank periodically descends from the rafters providing Silver with solace for the moral quest that has overtaken his life. Silver, heavily based on the real-life Meyer Levin, was a war correspondent who saw the Nazi death camps at the end of WWII. Silver sees in Anne Frank’s diaries a way to put a personal and specifically Jewish face on the horror he witnessed.

This is a morality tale, backstage drama, and a portrait of a Don Quixote as an asshole – noble, misguided, and his own worst enemy.

Mandy Patinkin inhabits the role of Sid Silver, and it’s a consummate performance of a man consumed – communicating the kernel of right amidst all his righteousness. Compulsion is a shared production with Yale Repertory, where it debuted earlier this year, and the New York Public Theatre, where it is headed next, all under the sharp-eyed direction of Oskar Eustis.

Other than changing the name Meyer Levin to Sid Silver, many other original names are preserved and details so closely parallel actual events that it’s not clear why Meyer had to become Sid. Perhaps it’s a way to allow the playwright greater artistic license, or maybe it’s a legal concern.

In a scene that may or not be facetious, after quoting from the diaries, a character says they are treading into dangerous territory because they have no permission to use the copy-

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Mandy Patinkin, as an obsessed writer, works on his own stage adaptation of Anne Frank’s diaries, while Anne, in puppet form, peers over his shoulder in Compulsion at Berkeley Rep.

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righted material.

Real-life Levin, and his stage counterpart, was a reputable author in America most famous for his award-winning novel inspired by the Leopold and Loeb case. Levin/Silver befriends Anne’s father, Otto, and facilitates the English-language translation without concern for personal remuneration. He only asks for permission to write a stage adaptation of the diaries, and he believes his verbal agreement with Otto Frank is sufficient. When his script is rejected and the assignment goes to the safe-bet couple Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich, Silver begins suing, harassing, and obsessing. Even Otto Frank gets served.

Not Jewish enough, Silver complains of the stage version, which indeed has been de-Semiticized in the cause of a more universal, or assimilationist, appeal. “In spite of everything, I still believe people are good at heart,” we hear Anne Frank say over and over again, a line that becomes sappy in repetition. Silver sees

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Kevin Berne

Tarell Alvin McCraney trilogy kicks off in Marin

Ryan Vincent Anderson, Jared McNeill, Dawn L. Troupe, Lakisha May, and Daveed Diggs in Tarell Alvin McCraney's In the Red and Brown Water at Marin Theatre Company, Part One of The Brother/Sister Plays.

most theatergoers. But if In the Red and Brown Water is good indication, and I suspect it is, the faith has been well placed. And Marin Theatre Company has set the bar high for the upcoming productions with this exciting start to the new theater season.M

In the Red and Brown Water will run at Marin Theatre Company through Oct. 10. Tickets are $33 - $53. More info at www.marintheatre.org and on all three productions of the trilogy at www.brothersisterplays.org.

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THEATRE

Venetian redux The late, lamented Venetian Room, for decades a premier venue for the nation’s top nightclub acts, is reopening its doors to music in a style appropriate to its legacy. Bay Area Cabaret will be using the Fairmont Hotel’s showroom for its seventh season of concerts by Broadway and cabaret stars. Unlike at the old Venetian Room, which closed as a supper club in 1989, these will be one-night only events instead of multi-week engagements.

Before the five-show series begins in November, the non-profit Bay Area Cabaret will present a fund-raising gala on Oct. 17 headlined by Broadway and Hollywood composer Marvin Hamlisch (A Chorus Line, The Way We Were). He’ll be at the piano, vocally accompanied by West End musical star Maria Friedman and J. Mark McVey, who spent several years on Broadway

Laura Marie Duncan

Michael Doppe develops special feelings for his gym coach (Cory Tallman) in the gay coming-of-age story Anita Bryant Died for Your Sins at NCTC.

Broadway legend Chita Rivera helps kick off a new cabaret series that restores the Fairmont’s Venetian Room as an active music venue.

among the shows ($40 to $60), with discounts for season subscribers. Call 927-4636 or go to bayareacabaret.org.

as Jean Valjean. A premium ticket gets you to entree to a post-show reception with the artists.

The regular season begins on Nov. 5 with Chita Rivera: My Broadway which stars the Tony-winning performer and her musical trio. On Nov. 21, Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp, two of the original stars of Rent, will reunite in a preview of their international tour that officially kicks off in January in New York.

Famed jazz guitarist John Pizzarelli and his Broadway-veteran wife, Jessical Molaskey, will be the headliners on March 13. Former ACT acting student and Tony Award-winning actress for Caroline, or Change will take the stage on May 1. The season concludes on May 14 with Broadway’s Lillias White (Fela!, The Life, Dreamgirls) in My Guy Cy, a tribute to composer Cy Coleman.

Individual tickets prices vary

Sins deferred In unhappier news, the annual Sins Invalid production, set for Oct. 8 - 10 at Theatre Artaud, has been postponed until 2011. The delay is due to health issues affecting Artistic Director Patricia Bernes, who needs the coming weeks to address these concerns. Sins Invalid’s mission is to explore disability and chronic illness in the context of race, sexual orientation, and gender identity. While the annual performance has been postponed, Sins Invalid will continue its workshop and artists-in-residence programs. Updates are available at sinsinvalid.org.M Richard Dodds can be reach at BARstage@comcast.net.

The Four Faces of Werther

by Jason Victor Serinus eople will be talking for days about debut director Francisco Negrin’s controversial staging of Massenet’s Werther for San Francisco Opera. In addition to body doubles for Werther – up to three at one point, unless I was seeing double by the fourth act –a love scene that Massenet expected to take place in the modestly covered flesh is instead staged as a dream. Such directorial intervention is certainly respectful – Negrin declares, “I love Werther,” and there is no reason to challenge that assertion – and we are spared the shock and awe of German Regietheater. But whether Negrin’s Freudian take on sexual obsession ultimately illuminates the characters’ psychological underpinnings, or just muddies up the waters, is open to question.

What cannot be questioned is that Negrin’s layered approach, which depicts three of the protagonists in desperate need of 12-Step love addiction intervention, makes the first half of the opera quite compelling. That’s essential, because Emmanuel Villaume’s extremely graceful, heartfelt, and emotionally compelling conducting can go only so far with a cast that, by and large, just missed the mark.

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boring as the music may be, it is up to the singers to elevate the opera based on Goethe’s ultra-romantic, era-defining novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther, from soap opera melodrama to high art. That didn’t happen. On opening night, at least, three of our four leads were almosts.

As Werther, Tenor Ramón Vargas’s instrument was a beautiful as ever, but lacked oomph on high. In addition, his distinctly audible habit of ending phrases with an “uhh” bespoke, not of French elegance, but of Italian drama.

If you’re going to sing a work intended for Paris’ Opéra-Comique, but whose initial performance was in Vienna, as

though it was written by Verdi, for God’s sake give it your all and shake the rafters with your high notes. If you can’t, then sing with more refinement.

Of mezzo Alice Coote’s status as a brilliant interpreter and impassioned singer, there is no question. Coote is a great artist, whose previous appearances here have occasioned superlatives. However, as the object of Werther’s instant obsession, Charlotte, Coote’s temperament and rather dry voice were better at conveying the tortured anguish of the final acts than the almost virginal promise of the prenuptial opening. Only in the second half of the opera, where her thrilling, emotionally charged singing included a perfectly managed diminuendo, did Coote convince.

As Charlotte’s young sister, Sophie, debut soprano Heidi Stober displayed a substantial lyric instrument that unfortunately lacks the lightness and purity the role calls for. Some might argue that such a voice suits a young girl who, in Negrin’s conception, spends far too much of her time lurking about, peaking over walls at Werther, but I longed for the same sweet purity that young Kyle Reidy, Anna Sophia Boyd, Josh Reinier, Blanca Peto, James Barton, and Kyle Miller brought to the chorus of children.

Vocally, baritone Brian Mulligan’s

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rates the play from his tree house, the playwright was also a teen finding his way during the ‘70s in upstate New York. He has called the play “emotionally autobiographical,” which includes feeling frightened and insecure, but a lot of the family drama/comedy has been fictionalized. The Los Angeles Times described the play as “Brighton Beach Memoirs nudged into Norman Lear territory by David Sedaris.”

Anita Bryant Died for Your Sins, which had its world premiere is Sarasota in 2004, is on its way to becoming the best known of the dozen or so plays Williams has written over the past two decades. Many of them have at least some gay element to them.

“I have no desire to write strictly for a gay audience, but being gay is often an accelerant in my writing,” Williams told a reporter last year. “If you’re going to spend so much time alone in a world you are creating, you need to have enough emotional drive to last not only through the writing but the rewriting.”

At New Conservatory, Dennis Lickteig is directing a cast that includes Michael Doppe as the precocious but inhibited Horace, Marie O’Donnell and Harry Breaux as his addled parents, Justin Dupuis as his draft-dodging brother, and Cory Tallman as an ambiguous gym coach who reminds Horace of his fantasy hero Mark Spitz.

Anita Bryant will run at NCTC through Oct. 24. Tickets at 861-8972 or nctcsf.org.

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became San Francisco first openly gay man to be elected to public office.

While Milk was assassinated a year n the 1970s, everybody knew that later, Bryant got a pie in her face and a “a day without orange juice is like career in a downward spia day without sunral. Despite her non-dead shine.” We knew it because status (as of press time), Anita Bryant told us so. In the provocatively titled an ironic way, the OJAnita Bryant Died for Your spokeswoman also spread Sins opens this week at sunshine in foggy San New Conservatory TheFrancisco. When Bryant, a atre Center. Bryant isn’t singer and former beauty the subject of Brian queen, used her celebrity in Christopher Williams’ Florida to help overturn play, though her “Save a Dade County ordiOur Children” camnance prohibiting disB ACKSTAGE paign is part of the crimination on the basis backdrop to quirky of sexual orientation, teenage Horace Poore’s angst about Harvey Milk was one of the leaders of coming out to his family in his upstate a protest march through the streets of New York home.

San Francisco. Five months later, Milk Like Horace, who sometimes nar-

by Richard Dodds

Lois Tema

Emotional autobiography

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FILM

Clonely hearts’ club

by David Lamble or fans of Kazuo Ishiguro’s dystopian romance novel Never Let Me Go, the good news is that director Mark Romanek – known to the MTV crowd for setting a Michael Jackson video on a flying saucer – hasn’t painted a mustache on your Mona Lisa; but the rest of us coming to this chilling fable of kids cloned for reparative medicine may leave the theatre wondering what the fuss was all about.

When first we spy them the soon to be adolescent students of a rundown English boarding school, Hailsham, appear to be training to be butlers and scullery maids – to be the emotionally repressed characters of Ishiguro’s first novel, Remains of the Day – complete with flea market seedy school togs and, given their fate, almost laughingly inappropriate lectures against smoking or junk food. Is this a Fawlty Towers parody where we’ll see John Cleese wheeled in as their crabby headmaster?

These clone kids are given this mock education until eighteen when they’re allowed to briefly experience a “normal” life as residents of rural cottages, until they hit their midtwenties and start “donating” their vital organs until reaching “completion” at around thirty.

Complications ensue when two of the Hailsham girls, Ruth and Kathy, compete for the affections of a highstrung, frequently picked-on boy, Tommy. Flash forward to the cottages and Ruth (Keira Knightly) and Tommy (Andrew Garfield) are furiously shagging, leaving Kathy (Carey Mulligan) to prepare herself for a short reprieve as a “carer” to buck up the spirits of clones facing their final donations.

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punch flows from the soulmate-like friendship between Kathy and Tommy, who eventually decide to explore rumors that Hailsham kids, who can prove that they’re truly in love, may be allowed a temporary dispensation from their destiny.

Fans of the novel probably treasure Ishiguro’s exploration of our own built-in obsolescence through these “die young, stay pretty” characters who have to pack everything into a third of a normal lifespan.

What plays on the page through a rigorously muted, almost banally matter of fact prose style can on the screen deteriorate into an overly reverential almost precious stunted drama that the filmmakers mistake for anti-Hollywood high mindedness.

Never Let Me Go never quite delivers the heart rendering epiphany that many of us would accept in place of a tricked out, hyper-violent or Twilight Zone style conclusion.

The film is at its emotional zenith

whenever Andrew Garfield pops in his now patented “doomed” boy riffs.

First spotted as the haunted young man trying desperately to avoid a British tabloid lynch mob for his complicity in a brutal crime committed when he was twelve in Boy A, Garfield then proceeded to abscond with the first chapter of The Red Riding Trilogy as a randy and callow young journalist who is ground under by a brutal police crime spree in 70’s Yorkshire. The Los Angeles-born, British-raised tousle-haired actor is like a club kid throwback to the days when devilishly handsome bad boys made an addiction to lowlife film noir seem almost a saintly pursuit.

A Garfield third act primal scream almost saves Never Let Me Go from its fear of melodrama. You may also enjoy this one for its last glimpse of a pre-Peter Parker Garfield, who is, as I write this, preparing for his radioac-

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THE T HE MUSICAL MUSICAL C COMEDY OMEDY THAT THAT KEEPS KEEPS O ON N WINNING! WINNING! WINNER! WI NNER!

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BEST MUSIC BEST MUSICAL AL L TONY AWARD 1984 T ONY A WARD R

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SEPT 16 – OCT 3 La Cage Aux Folles Music and Lyrics by

Jerry Herman Book by

Harvey Fierstein Based on the Play ‘La Cage Aux Folles’

by Jean Poiret

Featuring F eaturing g the songs ““Song Song on the Sand,” Sand,” and ” the bel beloved oved Bestt of Times” powerful “The Bes Times” and the po werful anthem, an nthem, “I “I Am Am What I Am” Am”

The e Peninsula’s Best Music Musical cal Theatre

San S an Mateo Mateo P Performing erforming Arts Arts Center Center

BroadwayByTheBay.org B roadwayByTheBay.org o orr 650-579-5565 650-579-5565

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Matthew Martin, Sat.

ABOUT Fri 24 >> 24 Days of Central Market Arts @ Various Venues

Mark I. Chester

n a weekend like this one, the performative nature of sexuality reaches a theatrical peak. Should your inner erotic self be a tad shy, for inspiration, consider experiencing kink as filtered through art.

Friday, September 24, Art for AIDS at The Galleria, a silent auction and stylish reception, features more than 160 works of art up for auction.

Proceeds benefit UCSF AIDS Health Project. $100-$200. 5:30pm. 101 Henry Adams St. 502-7276. www.ArtforAIDS.org Doing Time on Folsom St. showcases a 30-year retrospective of SM and leather-themed “sexual portraiture” by Mark I. Chester at his studio (see photo above). The opening reception is Friday, Sept. 24, 7pm11pm, with additional viewings this weekend, Sept. 25 & 26 from 11am6pm; also through 2010 by appointment. Donations are suggested, and you can get a free digital photo portrait in all your leather finery, thus becoming a work of art. 1229 Folsom St. JB Higgins’ prints 621-6294. www.markichester.com For sexy art at bargain prices, the San Francisco Leather Daddies host an Erotic Art Auction, Friday Sept. 24 at the Eagle Tavern. Really, there’ll be some unusual and sexy stuff. Proceeds benefit Visual Aid, the nonprofit that assists artists in need, and holds some pretty fabulous events of their own. 9pm. 398 12th St. www.visualaid.org www.sfeagle.com For sexy nude prints while shopping in the Castro, any day of the week, stop by A Different Light bookstore to see JB Higgins’ exhibit of erotic black and white male nude photos. Thru Oct. 15. 489 Castro St. www.adlbooks.com Talk dirty to me! Saturday Sept. 25, Perverts Put Out at the Center for Sex and Culture brings Meliza Bañales, Greta Christina, Robert Lawrence, Thomas Roche, Stephen Elliot, Lori Selke, horehound stillpoint, and co-hosts Carol Queen and Simon Sheppard together Carol Queen cohosts totantalize you with titillating texts.

Perverts Put Out $10-$15. 7:30pm. 1519 Mission St. www.simonsheppard.com www.sexandculture.org Sunday, Sept. 26, South of Market will be packed with thousands of leather kink fans, officianados, lookyloos, and more at the 27th annual Folsom Street Fair, the largest leather/fetish event in the world and the third largest, single-day outdoor event in California; 250+ vendors and booths, DJs and live music on several stages, hot food, cold drinks, and more. Donations $5-$10. 11am-6pm. Folsom Ronald Herman Symansky’s Street between 7th and 11th. stained glass erotica www.folsomstreetevents.org For those who consider sex a holy act, you might want to redecorate with some stained glass erotica by Ronald Herman Symansky. He’ll be showcasing half a dozen of his gay sex see-through beauties, art that would give the Vatican a run for its perviness, at his booth on 11th Street at Folsom.

And for information on the wide array of sexy parties all weekend, from Bearracuda to Magnitude and more, go to Leather Events (page 32) and www.BARtabsf.com M

Ray of Light Theatre’s production of the West Coast premiere of the award-winning farcical musical about the trashy daytime TV show (for mature audiences). $20-$36. WedSat 8pm. Thru Oct. 16. 2961 16th St. at Mission. (800) 838-3006. www.roltheatre.com www.jerrysf.com

Anita Bryant Died For Your Sins @ New Conservatory Theatre Center

In the Red and Brown Water @ Marin Theatre Company

Bayanihan Philippine National Dance Company @ Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley Cal Performances presents the dynamic traditional ensemble performing with live music. $20-$48. 8pm. Bancroft Way at Telegraph Avenue, UC Berkeley Campus.

(510) 642-9988. www.calperformances.org

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The Brothers Size @ Magic Theatre

Tarell Alvin McCraney’s first play in his Brother/Sister trilogy. $32-$53. Tue, ThuSat 8pm. Wed 7:30pm. Sun 2pm & 7pm.

Thru Oct. 3. 397 Miller Ave. Mill Valley. www.marintheatre.org

Lost Films of Charles Ludlam @ Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Short films, undiscovered for decades until recently, which document rarely filmed theatrical drag pastiches of gay performer Ludlam, founder of New York’s Ridiculous Theatrical Company. The Sorrows of Dolores and the short Museum of Wax (Sept 24/25, 7:30pm). The Imposters (Sept 26, 4:30pm). $6-$8. 701 Mission St. 978-2787. www.ybca.org

Tarell Alvin McCraney’s drama about two New Orleans brothers who try to reconnect. $30-$60. Thru Oct. 17. Fort Mason Center, Bldg. D, Marina Blvd. at Buchanan. www.magictheatre.org

Actors Theatre SF’s intimate staging of the classic Tennessee Williams play. $26-$38.

Wed-Sat 8pm. Extended thru Oct. 22. 855 Bush st. 345-1287. www.actorstheatresf.org

Dreamgirls @ Curran Theatre

ODC Theater’s Grand Re-Opening, Thu.

Mary Wilson @ The Rrazz Room

Fauxnique @ Climate Theatre

Hilarious and astonishing monologues about awful roommates, told by Charlie Ballard, Melinda Bailey, Lynn Breedlove, Dana M. Chernack, Justin Gomes, Emily Heller, Michael Layne-Heath, Beth Lisick, Thomas Roche, Desiree Rogers, Bucky Sinister and others. $10. Fri & Sat, 8pm thru Sept. 25.

2263 Mission St. at 18th. 401-7987. www.darkroomsf.com

40th anniversary exhibit, with Latino/Chicano works spanning four decades.

7:30pm opening reception. Exhibit Wed-Sat 12pm-6pm (Tue 1pm-7pm) thru Jan. 29, 2011. 2857 24th St. www.galeriadelaraza.org

GayVN Awards @ Castro Theatre If you want to pay $175 to watch clothed porn actors make acceptance speeches for “Best Double Anal Scene” as if they’ve won a Tony Award, go for it. Host Alec Mapa makes it almost bearable. Chi Chi LaRue, Sister Roma and others perform, but don’t expect to see any X-rated clips. 7pm. After parties at various bars. 429 Castro St. www.gayvnawards.com www.castrotheatre.com

Harvesting the Lost @ Phoenix Theatre Triple Shot Productions presents a new play

by Dan Wilson (Sweetie’ Tanya: the Demon Barista of Valencia Street) about a lesbian couple, one of whom claims to have been abducted by aliens. $25. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 5pm. Thru Sept. 25. 414 Mason St. (877) 556-7396. www.tripleshotproductions.org

Howl @ Various Cinemas James Franco stars as Allen Ginsberg in the unusual film about the obscenity trial over the gay poet’s now-famous poem. Jon Hamm

Compulsion @ Berkeley Repertory Theatre Tony Award winner Mandy Patinkin stars in the world premiere of Rinne Groff’s fascinating play about a man’s discovery and struggles to adapt The Diary of Anne Frank into a theatrical production. $14.50-$73. Tue, Fri, Sat 8pm. Wed, Sun 7pm. Thu Sat Sun 2pm (no show on some nights; check schedule online). Thru Oct. 31. 2025 Addison St. (510) 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org

In the Wound @ John Hinkel Park, Berkeley Shotgun Players, the creative ensemble behind last year’s hit park play The Farm (a hiphop Animal Farm) brings a new version of The Iliad. $10. 3pm. Sat & Sun thru Oct. 3.

Southampton Avenue entrance. www.shotgunplayers.org

The first African American gold medal Olympic athlete in swimming, who’s also gay, reads from and discusses his autobiography, Odd Man Out. Free. 4pm. 489 Castro St. 431-0891. www.adl-books.blogspot.com

Former Supreme shares her unstoppable singing talent. $40-$55. 8pm thru Sept. 25.

Sept. 26 at 7pm. 2-drink min. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. www.TheRrazzRoom.com

Galeria 4.0 @ Galeria de la Raza

Bob Mould and Rich Morel return with their DJed selection of indie, electro and house dance music. $15. 10pm-2am. 333 11th St. www.blowoff.us www.slims-sf.com

Jeff Commings @ A Different Light

New touring production of the classic Broadway musical about a Motown girl group’s struggles to the top of pop fame. $30-$99.

Tue-Sat 8pm. Wed, Sat, Sun 2pm. Thru Sept. 26. 445 Geary St. (888) 746-1799. www.shnsf.com

Monique Jenkinson returns (fresh from a London gig) with her acclaimed balletic serio-comic solo show, Faux Real, a meditation on drag and realness. Note: not at the Climate’s 9th St. space, but at TJT, 470 Florida St. $15-$20. Wed-Sat 8pm. Thru Oct. 8 (extra closing night show at 10pm). www.fauxnique.net

Blowoff @ Slim’s

African-American Shakespeare Company’s production of Colin Teevans’ adaptation of Euripides’ Trojan War epic Iphigeneia at Aulis, about heroism, war, and celebrity. $15-$35. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 3pm. Thru Oct. 16. 2781 24th St. 647-2822. www.AfricanAmericanShakes.org www.brava.org

Broadway by the Bay’s production of the award-winning Jerry Herman/Harvey Fierstein musical based on the French play about two gay club owners who closet their relationship to appease their rightwing in-lawsto-be. $20-$48. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm.

Thru Oct. 3. 600 North Delaware Ave. (650) 579-5565. www.broadwaybythebay.org

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof @ Actors Theatre

pop culture icons, all in gigantic wigs. $25$80. Wed, Thu 8pm. Fri, Sat 6:30, 9:30pm.

Sun 2pm, 5pm. (Beer/wine served; cash only). 678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd.

421-4222. www.beachblanketbabylon.com

Iph @ Brava Theater

La Cage aux Folles @ San Mateo Performing Arts Center

Rich Stadtmiller

Folsom Street Fair fun

Jerry Springer, the Opera @ Victoria Theatre

Three-week free performing arts festival, with live dance, theatre, art walks, music and more in public plazas and mid-Market venues. Kick-off events Sept. 24, 12pm, 1pm & 5pm at Mint Plaza. 5th st. at Market/Mission. www.centralmarketarts.org

Brian Christopher Williams’ play about a young gay teen in the late 1970s dealing with tumultuous events around and within him. $24-$40. Previews thru Sept. 24.

Opening night Sept 25. Thru Oct. 24. 25 Van Ness Ave, lower level. 861-8972. www.nctcsf.org

by Jim Provenzano

Alessandro Nivola and many other prominent actors have cameos. www.oscilloscope.net

Roommates From Hell @ The Dark Room

Scapin @ American Conservatory Theater Comic clown extraordinaire Bill Irwin directs and stars in a baggy-pants update on the Moliere farce, about a rascal who capriciously helps two young lovers. $10-$90. Tue-Sat 8pm. Wed, Sat, Sun 2pm. Thru Oct. 17. 415 Geary St. 749-2228. www.act-sf.org

Spiritual Cinema Night @ Unity Spiritual Center Enjoy a screening of the Emmy award-winning film Temple Grandin at the LGBT-inclusive faith center. 7pm, with food. 2690 Ocean Ave. at 19th. www.unitysf.org

Trannyshack Lady Gaga Tribute @ DNA Lounge It’s an extra-special night with two shows (11:30pm-1am) for one price, full of drag parodies and tributes with the music of the hottest pop singer in the world; Sandra O’Noshidin’t, Coco Canal, Becky Motorlodge, Heklina, Rhea Litre (LA), Charisma Glitterati, Cookie Dough, Lil’ Miss Hot Mess, Lady Heaven, Ambrosia Salad, and very special guest Sherry Vine. $15-$20.

375 11th St. www.trannyshack.com

Sat 25 >> Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi Musical comedy revue, now in its 35th year, with an ever-changing lineup of political and

Kate Clinton @ Marines Memorial Theatre Veteran lesbian comic brings her “Lady HaHa” act to town, with skewering wit that spares no one. $37.50-$47.50. 8pm. 609 Sutter St. 771-6900. www.kateclinton.com www.MarinesMemorialTheatre.com

Laybelline @ Castro Country Club Drag show and fundraiser for the Club. $10.

10:30pm. 4058 18th St. www.castroountryclub.org

Matthew Martin @ The Rrazz Room Local drag icon, whose impersonations of Bette Davis are known worldwide, performs songs as Bette, Judy Garland, Peggy Lee and other movie divas in All Singing, All Dancing, All Dead! The Tom Shaw Trio accompanies. $30. 10:30pm. Also Nov 10, 8pm. 2drink min. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. www.TheRrazzRoom.com

Metropolis @ Castro Theatre It’s back. The classic 1927 Fritz Lang scifi flick, completely restored, is screened with a recording of the original score. $7.50-$10.

1:30pm only today. Sun-Wed 8pm. Early shows Wed 2pm, 5pm. 429 Castro St. www.castrotheatre.com

Olive Kitteridge @ Z Space Word for Word’s stage adaptation of Elizabeth Strout short stories, set in a coastal Maine town about a stern math teacher. $20-$40. Wed-Thu 7pm, Fri-Sat 8pm. Sun 5pm. Extended thru Oct. 10. 450 Florida St. (800) 838-3006. www.zspace.org

Pearls Over Shanghai @ The Hypnodrome Thrillpeddlers’ revival of the comic mock operetta by Link Martin and Richard Koldewyn, performed by the gender-bending Cockettes decades ago, and loosely based on the 1926 play The Shanghai Gesture; with an all-star cast. $30-$69. 18 and over only!

Extended, Sat 8pm, Sun 7pm, thru Dec 19.

575 10th St. at Division. (800) 838-3006. www.thrillpeddlers.com

The Secretaries @ Boxcar Playhouse Crowded Fire theatre ensemble performs The Five Lesbian Brothers’ 1995 dark and bloody satire about a chainsaw-wielding secretarial pool. $15-$25. Wed-Sat 8pm. 505 Natoma St. 255-7846. www.crowdedfire.org

23 September 2010 . eBAR.com . BAY AREA REPORTER

Bayanihan Philippine National Dance Company, Fri.

Wed 29 >> Celebrating Fabled Asp @ SF Public Library Fabulous Activist Bay Area Lesbians with Disabilities: a 40 Year Retrospective, an exhibit of photographs, ephemera, and related events. Exhibit thru Nov. 23, 6th floor Skylight Gallery. 100 Larkin St. www.fabledasp.com www.sfpl.org

Funny Girls @ Brava Theater

Ericka Huggins, Ronald K. Porter @ Museum of the African Diaspora Stirring the Waters, Fanning the Flames, a discussion panel between the former political prisoner and Black Panther Party leader, and the UC Berkeley candidate. Co-presented with the LGBT Historical Society. $10.

2:30pm-4pm. 685 Mission St. www.moadsf.org

Swing It @ Café Flore Garza hosts a fundraiser for Queer Jitterbugs, including acts by Farrokh, Brenda James, Tweaka Turner, Mamadora, La Malinche. Ken Vulsion DJs. 10pm-2am. Market St. at Noe. www.cafeflore.com

Teatro Zinzanni @ Pier 29 Hail Ceasar! is the current show at the theatre-tent-dinner extravaganza with comic Frank Ferrante, twin acrobats Ming and Rui, Vertical Tango rope dance, plus magic, comedy, a five-course dinner, and a lot of fun. $117-$145. Saturday 11:30am “Breve” show $63—$78. Wed-Sat 6pm (Sun 5pm).

Pier 29 at Embarcadero Ave. 438-2668. www.teatrozinzanni.com

Texas Rose Dance @ Humanist Hall, Oakland Country-Western dance for lesbians, transgendered women and their friends, with lessons and social dancing. $5-$10.

6:30pm-10pm. 309 27th St. at Broadway. www.texasrosedance.com

SF Hiking Club @ Little Basin Join GLBT hikers for a 12-mile hike through redwood forests, rocky peaks, and some rock outcroppings that are a challenge to climb.

Carpool meets at Safeway sign, Market & Dolores, 8:15. (650) 763-8537, www.sfhiking.com

Thu 30 >>

Sunday’s a Drag @ Starlight Room

Opening gala for the beautifully renovated dance theatre space, with 25 dancers performing throughout the building in areas lit and designed by Elaine Buckholtz, and the debut of Brenda Way’s Architecture of Light. Reception, dinner and performance $500. Additional nights Oct 1-2. $35-$20.

3153 17th St. at Shotwell. 863-9834. www.odcdance.org

Donna Sachet and Harry Denton host the fabulous weekly brunch and drag show. $45.

11am, show at noon; 1:30pm, show at 2:30pm. 450 Powell St. in Union Square.

395-8595. www.harrydenton.com

Swing-out Sundays @ Rock-it Room Slim Jenkins and other bands play weekly for your same- and opposite-sex swing dancing pleasure. $5 includes a lesson. 8pm11pm. 406 Clement St. www.SwingChampionships.com

Various Acts @ The Rrazz Room Veteran actress Janis Paige tonight; Also Sept 27. Bud E. Luv Band, Sept 28, 8pm.

Jonathan Porets and Friends, Sept 28, 8pm.

Comic Mark Curry, Sept. 30, 8pm. $25$45. 2-drink min. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. www.TheRrazzRoom.com

Tour de Fat @ Golden Gate Park

Alice Childress’ 1955 play within a play about racism in the early Civil Rights movement. $10-$55. Tue 7pm, Wed-Sat 8pm, Sun 2pm & 7pm. Thru Oct 3. 2081 Addison St. (510) 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org

Twilight Marathon @ Castro Theatre See all three of the popular teen vampire flicks based on the books by a rightwing Mormon. Twilight, 5pm, New Moon, 7:20pm, Eclipse, 9:45pm. $7.50-$10. 429 Castro St. www.castrotheatre.com

Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne and Beyond @ de Young Museum Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay, the second of two exhibitions from the Paris museum’s permanent collection. $10-$25. Tue-Sun 9:30am-5:15pm.

Thru Jan. 18, 2011. 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, Golden Gate Park, www.famsf.org

Wicoza-NI-zhoni @ JanRae Art Gallery, Oakland Group exhibit of visual art and videos by Native American artists. Thru Dec. 10.

Women’s Cancer Resource Center, 5741 Telegraph Ave. (510) 601-4040. www.crc.org

Sun 26 >> Happy Hour @ Energy Talk Radio Interview show with gay writer Adam Sandel as host. 8pm. www.EnergyTalkRadio.com

The Mighty Uke Roadshow @ Castro Theatre It’s a ukulele-palooza! See the award-winning documentary Mighty Uke, a concert with Uni and her Ukelele, Ukulele Dick, and an attempt to establish a Guinness recordbreaking giant ukulele strum-along. $12.

3pm. 429 Castro St. www.castrotheatre.com

Grand Re-Opening @ ODC Theater

Grace Kelly Films @ Castro Theatre Enjoy classic films starring the beautiful actress. To Catch a Thief (2:40, 7pm), High Society (4:40, 9pm). Oct 1, Rear Window (2:45, 7pm), Dial M for Murder (4:50, 9:15). $7.50-$10. 429 Castro St. www.castrotheatre.com

Kiss of Blood @ Hypnodrome Theatre Thrillpeddlers presents three “Shocktoberfest” one-act plays with macabre comic themes; Aragny/Neilson’s 1929 Kiss of Blood, and Lips of the Damned and The Empress of Colma, new plays by Rob Keefe. $25-$35. Thu & Fri Thru Nov. 19. 575 10th St. at Bryant. (800) 8383006. www.thrillpeddlers.com

Mark Morris Dance Group @ Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley

Beer and bicycling collide in a park full of fun at the annual party benefitting SF Bicycle Coalition. Live music, tasty food, New Belgium Brewery beer, games, display booths, bike parking.

Lindley Meadow, 11am5pm. www.sfbike.org/fat

Trouble in Mind @ Aurora Theatre, Berkeley

Shazia Mirza, Carla Clayy, Dhaya Lakshminarayanan and host Lisa Geduldig perform their unique kind of comedy. $25. 8pm.

2781 24th St. Also Sept. 30, 8pm, at Julia Morgan Center, 2640 College Ave., Berkeley. Also, Oct. 1, 8pm, at Lucie Stern Community Theatre, 1305 Middlefield Rd., Palo Alto. (800) 838-3006. www.koshercomedy.com

Semi Precious Weapons, Tue.

Mon 27 >> Deborah Cohler @ A Different Light Author of Citizen, Invert, Queer: Lesbianism & War in Early 20th Century Britain discusses her book. 489 Castro St. 431-0891. www.adl-books.blogspot.com

Ten Percent @ Comcast 104 David Perry’s new talk show about LGBT local issues. New times: Mon-Fri 11:30am & 10:30pm, Sat & Sun 10:30pm. www.davidperry.com

Tue 28 >> Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore @ Modern Times Bookstore

Globally acclaimed dance company performs three West Coast premieres; Morris’ Socrates (with live piano and tenor vocal accompaniment of music by Erik Satie), Looky and Behemoth. $34$72. 8pm. Also Oct. 1 & 2, 8pm. Oct. 3, 3pm. Bancroft Way at Telegraph Avenue, UC Berkeley Campus. (510) 6429988. www.calperformances.org

Square Dancing @ Harvey Milk Rec. Center Traditional dance in a non-traditional way.

No partner necessary. 7pm. also Oct. 7. 50 Scott St. at Duboce. www.westernstardancers.org

Suggestions of a Life Being Lived @ SF CameraWork Group exhibit of contemporary photos visualizing queer activism, gay communities, and homos in public spaces, including works by Steven Miller, Killer Banshee Studios, Gay Shame, Kirstyn Russell, Jeannie Simms and others. Tue-Sat 12pm-5pm thru Oct. 23.

657 Mission St. 2nd floor. 512-2020. www.sfcamerawork.org

To submit event listings, email jim@ebar.com.

Deadline is each Thursday, a week before publication.

Eccentric queer author and anti-assimilationist activist with a uniquely entertaining voice says farewell to San Francisco –for now- at a reading for his latest book, The End of San Francisco. 7pm. 888 Valencia St. at 20th. 282-9246. www.moderntimesbookstore.com

Semi Precious Weapons @ Slim’s The glam-punk-rock band (who opened for Lady Gaga on her recent tour) perform their fierce tunes. DJ Lady Starlight and Breedlove also perform. $18. 8:30pm. 333 11th St. www.semipreciousweapons.com www.slims-sf.com

Yoga Classes @ The Sun Room Heated, healing weekly yoga classes in a new location. Suggested donation $10-20.

12pm-1pm. Tue & Thu. 2390 Mission St, 3rd floor. 794-4619. www.billmohleryoga.com

For bar and nightclub listings, go to our new website and monthly print nightlife guide,

www.bartabsf.com

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BAY AREA REPORTER . eBAR.com . 23 September 2010

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Folsom: What’s in it for you?

by Scott Brogan wo words: Anything! Everything! As the calendar below proves, there is something for everyone during San Francisco Leather Week. As of the date of this printing, we’re halfway into Leather Week, which means we’re lubed – I mean geared - up and on our way to the culminating event, the one and only world famous Folsom Street Fair.

Whether it’s your first or fifteenth (plus) time at the fair you’ll have an amazing time. One doesn’t need to be “into” leather, BDSM, kink, or anything else to enjoy it. Walk the fair and you’ll see the most diverse crowd of revelers and onlookers you’ll ever find in a single five-block stretch anywhere else. You’ll also notice a few confused tourists who found the fair by mistake.

They’re my favorites.

The events calendar below is huge (which I like), so I’m keeping this week’s column brief. What? Me? Brief?

I know it’s impossible to imagine, but I’ll try. The focus should be on the incredible array of events happening this week and not what I might have to say about them, so here goes by brevity.

Last Sunday Leather Week got off to its official start with the 19th annual Leather Walk and 10th annual Leather Flag Raising at the Harvey Milk Plaza on Market and Castro streets. In spite of the early fog-in-

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SF Leather Daddies & Daddy’s boys raise the Leather Flag over Harvey Milk Plaza in the Castro on Sunday, September 19th officially kicking off Leather Week in SF.

Coming up in leather & kink >> Thurs., Sep 23: How to Eat a Peach: Pleasuring Her at the SF Citadel (1277 Mission). 8:00 – 10:00 p.m. www.sfcitadel.org Thurs., Sep 23: San Francisco Leather Week Formal Dinner at Supperclub (657 Harrison). Gourmet dinner, open bar, performance by Sherry Vine, sounds of DJ Jim Piechota and more. Admission: $75. Starts at 6:00 p.m. www.folsomstreetevents.org/shop/ Thurs., Sep 23: Hot House GayVN Prison Break Party at The Lone Star Saloon (1354 Harrison). Meet Hot House Exclusives, free DVDs, drink specials and red carpet interviews with Sister Roma. No cover. Sexy beats provided by NY DJ Little Rock.

Thurs., Sep 23: Meat Tray – The Aussie Meet & Greet for Folsom at The Powerhouse (Dore & Folsom). 9:00 pm. – 12:00 a.m. www.powerhouse-sf.com Thurs., Sep 23: The Inmates Ball at Truck (1900 Folsom at 15th). GayVN Awards pre-party featuring Colin O’Neil’s World of Men, Naked Sword, and over 7 different studios celebrating Folsom and the GayVN awards. Starts at 9:00 p.m. www.trucksf.com Thurs., Sep 23: Raging Stallion & GayVN Awards party with Naked Sword at Chaps Bar (1225 Folsom). Featuring the studs of Raging Stallion. Drink specials. www.chapsbarsanfranciso.com Thurs, Sep 23: Full Moon Contest with Krewe de Kinque at The Edge (4149 18th St in the Castro). 8:00 p.m. – Midnight. $100 Prize. $8 PBR Benefit Bust, Raffle for Magnet. www.edgesf.com Fri., Sep 24: Fists Over Folsom Fisting Party at 385-A 8th St (above Mr. S Leather). Expanded Folsom hours: 7:00 p.m. – 4:00 a.m. No admission after 1:00 a.m. www.HellHoleSF.com Fri., Sep 24: Durrty Folsom Jockstrap Party at Chaps Bar (1225 Folsom). Strip down to your dirty jocks and get bar specials. The fun starts at 9:00 p.m. www.chapsbarsanfrancisco.com Fri., Sep 24: Truck Wash at Truck (1900 Folsom @ 15 th St). Hot men, real shower. Show gets hotter as night goes on. Starts at 10:00 p.m. www.trucksf.com Fri., Sep 24: S.F. Roll Call 2020. Exact location disclosed upon ticket purchase. Sponsored by the California B&B (Boots & Breeches) Corps S.F. Division. 7:00 – 11:00 p.m.

Tickets are $90 in ADVANCE ONLY. Includes full bar, dinner, and gear auction to benefit Project Open Hand.

Tickets and info: www.bbcorps.com or Stomper’s Boos at 323 10th Street.

Fri., Sep 24: Edge-ing with Michael Brandon at The Edge (4149 18th St in the Castro). Biggest bicep contest - go-go dancers. Raffle and Jell-O shots for Tom of Finland Foundation. www.edgesf.com Fri., Sep 24: Venus’ Playground Play Party at The Garage (525 Harrison). 9:00 p.m. – 2:00 a.m. NOTE: This party is for all who identify as Female or Gender-queer. Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door. www. folsomstreetevents.org/shop/ Fri., Sep 24: Full Throttle - The Official Folsom Friday

Night Dance Event at The EndUp (401 6th St). 8:00 p.m.

– 11 a.m. This is not a play party - it is a dance party. Admission is free until 10 p.m. Tickets are $15. This event will have a Fetish/Kink/Black light theme just to fit Folsom weekend until 2am. After that, GhettoDisco will rocket into high hear. The party continues till 11:00 a.m.; featuring five coast to coast DJs. www.folsomstreetevents .org/shop/ Fri., Sep 24: Recon’s Full Fetish at 525 Harrison. The official Friday night men-only play party of Folsom. 10:00 p.m. – 3:00 a.m. $30 admission. www.folsomstreetevents .org/shop Fri., Sep 24: Bearracuda Folsom Friday at the Cat Club (1190 Folsom). 9:00 p.m. – 4:00 a.m. $7 admission before 10:00 p.m., $10 after. www.bearrracuda.com Fri., Sep 24: Men of Discipline (MOD) Men Only Play Party at the SF Citadel (1277 Mission). This is a private event. Sponsorship from a member of MOD is needed.

Admission is $25 in advance, $35 at the door. www.menofdiscipline.com Fri., Sep 24: Doing Time on Folsom St - Fine Art Radical Sex Photographs Retrospective at the Mark I Chester Studio (1229 Folsom). 7:00 – 11:00 p.m. www.markichester .com Fri., Sep 24: Blow Buddies Friday Play Party at Blow Buddies (933 Harrison). Doors open early at 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 a.m. Glory holes, slings, jail cells, and more. www.blowbuddies.com Fri., Sep 24: SF All Male Foot Fetish Party at 455 14th St (at Guerrero). 8:00 p.m. – 2:00 a.m. $20 admission, $10 students under 25 with student ID, $5 people under 21.

Includes drinks, soda, snacks, foot videos and full play space. www.FootPartySF.com Fri., Sep 24: Off Ramp Leathers Open House (342 9th St).

Check out the new location and have a free beer or soda.

21+ only. 1:00 – 6:00 p.m. Go to: www.offrampleathers.com Fri., Sep 24: Titleholder’s Party at The Powerhouse (Dore & Folsom). Starts at 9:00 p.m. Hosted by Mr. Powerhouse, Mr. SF Leather and IML runner-up Lance Holman. Wear your vest or sash and be a part of the group shot at 11:00 p.m. $5 donation benefiting the SF Leather Fund. Sponsored by Mr. S Leather and Kink.com. www.powerhouse-sf.com Sat., Sep 25: SF Men’s Spanking Party at The Power Exchange (220 Jones St). This is a male only event. Must be 18+ with valid ID. 1:00 – 6:00 p.m. This is not a leather S&M group, but more for guys into the Traditional Old Fashion Spanking over Daddy’s Knee or Fraternity Style Initiation Pledge Paddling. www.voy.com/201188/ Sat., Sep 25: “Sanctuary I & II” Hot House DVD Release Party at Chaps Bar (1225 Folsom). Special appearances

by Craig Reynolds and Kyle King. 9:00 p.m. – 2:00 a.m. www.chapsbarsanfrancisco.com Sat., Sep 25: Beer Bust for Seismic Challenge 3.0 at Truck (1900 Folsom @ 15th St). Join the hottest motorcycle group in SF. All you can drink beer for $10. 4:00 – 8:00 p.m. Followed by the “Pure Hog Wet T-shirt Contest” at 10:00 p.m. www.trucksf.com

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23 September 2010 . eBAR.com . BAY AREA REPORTER

State Senator Mark Leno and organizer Mama Reindhardt open the 19th annual Leather Walk and 10th annual Leather Flag Raising at Harvey Milk Plaza in the Castro on Sunday, September 19.

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duced drizzle, the crowd was big and festive. I think the cold forced some to have an extra cocktail or two, which made for fun walking.

Organizer “Mama” Reindhardt gave awards recognizing the continuous support of her crew, and State Senator Mark Leno welcomed everyone with an amusing anecdote about explaining the flag and community to a someone at City Hall after they exclaimed: “We have to do something,

SF’s “Sergeant Chuck” receives a “Walk with Heart” award at the 19th annual Leather Walk in the Castro on Sunday, September 19.

Toscano, Alexis Miranda and John Weber. Sgt. Chuck and other hot pothey raised an S&M flag over Castro!” licemen/women provided a safe esTo which Leno responded: “I know, I cort. All the monies raised benefit the helped raise it – and it’s a ‘leather’ flag.”

AIDS Emergency Fund and the Breast After the raising, the drizzle Cancer Emergency Fund, who once stopped just in time for the two again failed to have a representative and a half-mile walk which present. began at 440 Castro, moved That’s it for now. Check out down Market to South the calendar of events below of Market, with stops at and www.folsomstreetevents The Powerhouse, Chaps, .org to see what’s happening.

The Hole in the Wall and If you can’t find something to ending at The SF Eagle enjoy, then you’re a big party Tavern’s beer bust. Walkpooper and need to stay ers were entertained home. Apologies in advance along the way by local if I’ve missed something.

L EATHER talents Ejector, Xavier Have fun this weekend!M

Sat., Sep 25: BigMuscle.com Folsom Charity Party at the DNA Lounge (375 11th St). 1:00 – 6:00 p.m. Meet up with other guys from all the Big Muscle sites. $10 admission, benefits the AIDS Emergency Fund. www.bigmuscle.com Sat., Sep 25: 15 Association Men’s Dungeon BSDM Play Party at Mr. S (385-A 8th St). 18+ Men only. Includes smoking area, soft drinks and snacks. 8:00 p.m. – 1:00 a.m. $25 admission. www.the15association.org Sat., Sep 25: Paul Morris & Treasure Island Media Present Raw Underground at Chaps Bar (1225 Folsom). 3:00 – 8:00 p.m. Free T.I.M. give-a-ways, drinks specials, go-go boys, raffles, and appearances by the models. www.chapsbarsanfrancisco.com www.treasureislandmedia.com

and Mr. SF Leather 2007. $8 cover, $5 if wearing uniform, leather or fetish gear. www.powerhouse-sf.com Sat., Sep 25 & Sun., Sep 26: Skin Escape: A Play Oasis During Folsom Weekend at The Edges in Santa Clara. 12:00 p.m. – close on Sat, 12:00 – 8:00 p.m. on Sun. $20 admission, $30 for both days. www.edges.biz Sun., Sep 26: The Folsom Street Fair. 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Covers 7th to 12th streets in San Francisco. www.folsomstreetevents.org Sun., Sep 26: Deviants – The Official Folsom Street Fair Closing Party at 525 Harrison St. 6:00 p.m. – 2:00 a.m.

Featuring demos by Kink.com and BoundGods, and the hottest DJ line-up you’ll find all week long! $30 online, $40 at the door. www.folsomstreetevents.org/shop

Sat, Sep 25: Cigarmen and Pipemen Annual Folsom Gathering 2010 at The Eagle Tavern (398 12th St). Sponsored by Bay Area Cigar Buddies. This year is in conjunction with Hot Boots. Leather attire suggested. www.folsomstreetevents.org/leather-week

Sun., Sep 25: Folsom Weenie Roast at Truck (1900 Folsom @ 15 th St). 4:00 p.m. $2 hotdogs hot off the grill.

Followed by “Folsom is Intense” Folsom Fair after party at 5:00 p.m. Followed by “Cocktail Gate” drag show at 9:30 p.m. www.trucksf.com

Sat., Sep 25: This Shit Will Fuck U Up 5 – SF Citadel’s Open Play Folsom Celebration Event at the SF Citadel (1277 Mission). 7:00 p.m. – 2:00 a.m. Beverages, snacks, lockers (locks for $5) and plenty of dungeon space. Admission is $40 at the door for single admission, $30 extra per person is a couple/triad, etc. Price includes weekend membership. NOTE: This is a pansexual open play party – all genders, sexual orientations, and styles of play are welcome. www.sfcitadel.org

Sun., Sep 26: This Shit Will Fuck U Up – Eclipse at the SF Citadel (1277 Mission). 5:00 p.m. – 12:00 a.m. Note: Eclipse is the Citadel’s party for women and trans perverts! $30 admission. www.sfcitadel.org

Sat., Sep 25: Saturday Play Party at Blow Buddies (933 Harrison). 6:00 p.m. – 4:00 a.m. Party goes on until 6:00 a.m.

Glory holes, slings, jail cells, and more. www.blowbuddies .com

Sun., Sep 26: Blow Buddies Fair Day Play Party at Blow Buddies (933 Harrison). Doors open at 4:00 p.m. and stay open until 4:00 a.m. The party goes on until 6:00 a.m.

Glory holes, slings, jail cells, and more. www.blowbuddies .com

Sat., Sep 25: Magnitude – The Official Dance Event of Folsom Street Fair at 525 Harrison St. 10:00 p.m. – 4:00 a.m. . Relax and play in the dungeon space. Experience the laser light shows, hard-core videos and the stars of TitanMen.com, as DJ/Producer Manny Lehman takes you on a world-class musical journey through the night. Come ready for action! Tickets are $80 in advance, $100 at the door. www.folsomstreetevents.org/magnitude Sun., Sep 26: Aftershock at 715 Harrison St. Immediately following Magnitude at 4:00 – 10:00 a.m. Admission is $30 in advance, $40 at the door. www.folsomstreetevents .org/shop Sat., Sep 25: Nips in the Afternoon at The Powerhouse (Dore & Folsom). 3:00 – 6:00 p.m. Free. Come give your nips a workout. Sponsored by: www.nippleplay.com Sat., Sep 25: Bond! Rubber Men of SF Sexy and Friendly Bar Social Party at The Powerhouse (Dore & Folsom). 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. Come and “stick” with some hot new friends.

Rubber, latex, PVC, etc. www.rmsf.org Sat., Sep 25: Blowoff San Francisco at Slim’s (333 11th St.).

10:00 p.m. – 2:00 a.m. Rock and electronic musicians Richard Morel & Bob Mould host and DJ. $15 admission. www.blowoff.us www.slims-sf.com Sat., Sep 25: Lawless at The Powerhouse (Dore & Folsom).

Club Inferno debuts new film, with star Jackson Lawless

Sun., Sep 26: 420 Sunset T Launch Party at The Edge (4149 18th St in the Castro). Featuring vocalist Kaylah Marin. Drink specials and Jell-O shots benefit Breast Cancer Emergency Fund. www.edgesf.com

Sun., Sep 26: Real Bad XXII at Club 1015 Folsom (1015 Folsom). 7:00 p.m. – 4:00 a.m Featuring DJ Sean Mac and benefitting local non-profits. www.realbad.org Mon., Sep 25: Recovery Monday at Chaps Bar (1225 Folsom). $2 for all beers and all well drinks all day long. www.chapsbarsanfrancisco.com Tue., Sep 28: 12-Step Kink Recovery Group at the SF Citadel (1277 Mission). 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. www.sfcitadel.org Wed., Sep 29: Bear Buddies Play Party at Blow Buddies (933 Harrison St). Starts at 8:00 p.m. Bear Buddies is a private membership event for bears, cubs and the men who luv ‘em! Strict dress code: leather, rubber, uniforms, jockstraps, etc. Note: Fragrances are not allowed at any time. www.blowbuddies.com Wed., Sep 29: Busted! at Chaps Bar (1225 Folsom). This week’s edition: Piss. You know what that means. Wear your yellow! Starts at 9:00 p.m. www.chapsbarsanfrancisco .com.

Wed., Sep 29: “SoMa’s Mens’ Club.” Every Wednesday, the SoMa Clubs (Chaps, Powerhouse, Truck, Lone Star, Hole in the Wall, The Eagle), all have specials for those who have the Men’s Club dog tags. See your favorite SoMa bar for details.

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23 September 2010 . eBAR.com . BAY AREA REPORTER

BOOKS

Living parallel lives Author Michael Cunningham on the art of fiction

by Gregg Shapiro ay, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Michael Cunningham, whose award-winning novel The Hours was the basis for the film, has written a new novel, By Nightfall (Farrar Straus Giroux). Art dealer Peter is married to magazine editor Rebecca, and they live in New York.

The arrival of Rebecca’s younger brother Ethan (aka Mizzy, as in “mistake”) throws the couple’s seemingly happy existence into a severe tailspin.

Hot Mizzy comes on to Peter, leading the poor fellow to question everything about himself. Cunningham handles the material with all of the grace, wit, sensitivity and insight that we have come to expect from him over the years. I spoke with him at his Provincetown, MA residence in August.

G

Michael Cunningham: One of the great things about writing novels is that you get to live a certain number of parallel lives. I wanted to be a painter when I started out, but wasn’t good enough at it. I not only love visual art, but I have a certain sense of the road not taken. And I am fascinated by the whole world of buying and selling art. So writing a book is a good excuse to take a field trip into some parallel realm and learn what you can about it, then live in it for the time it takes to write the book.

David Shankbone

Gregg Shapiro: The New York art world is at the center of By Nightfall.

What was it about that setting that was intriguing to you?

Author Michael Cunningham

all caught up with my awakening sexuality, it may have stayed with me in a way that it hasn’t for those other guys.

Matthew dies of AIDS complications, not a subject as prevalent as it once was in contemporary gay lit. Do you feel like you have to remind people

Uta says to Peter, “You’ve always been in love with beauty itself.” Is that true of you as well?

Yeah, I am in love with beauty. In this regard, Peter is to some degree autobiographical. Because I am reluctant to believe that beauty is dead, whether it be in visual art or in the sentences we write. Yes, I am a whore for beauty. I can’t read a book that’s sloppily written. It’s not a pleasure to me.

Frank fictions M

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a conspiracy at work beyond the mere commercial concerns of a Broadway production. It’s part of an effort to rob the Jewish people of their identity, and by extension, their suffering. Silver sees Lillian Hellman, who consulted on the produced script, as a chief villain in suppressing his manuscript.

Compulsion is set over the course of many years, and Silver’s main confidante is his French wife. She threatens to leave him if he doesn’t put “A.F.” behind him, scared of even using her name. When she thinks she’s won the battle, Silver comes up with another scheme to get his version of the play produced. In a wonderful, tender moment, the Anne Frank marionette joins the wife and her sleeping husband in bed as a kind of peace treaty emerges.

Also coming from the Yale Rep run with Patinkin, the superb Hannah Cabell creates two distinct characters as,

Why did you choose to make Peter and Rebecca a hetero couple, not a same-sex couple?

I’ve always written about gay and straight people, but I have tended to focus on characters that were gay or gayish. Part of it was the pure challenge of it. I did sort of think, “Straight world! Can I go there?” I showed the manuscript to some actual heterosexuals, just to be sure!

Did you want to make a statement about the state of contemporary marriage, in light of the ongoing struggle for gay marriage?

Brothers play an essential role in the book, from gay family members such as Peter’s late brother Matthew to the sexually ambiguous Mizzy.

I do not have any brothers, so I’m as surprised as many people are to find these powerful brother figures appearing in my fiction. I think it probably gets down to this: When I was in high school, I had this crew of guy friends, and they were sort of my second family. They kind of taught me how to love other people. I was, of course, in love with all of them. Actually, two of us turned out to be gay. I’ve talked to so many gay friends who had this charismatic high school best friend who they adored. Because it was

epidemic, it profoundly affects what you write. How could it not?

that the AIDS crisis is not over?

It’s not over! And younger guys are getting infected. I think it is some combination of social responsibility and the fact that I’m 57, I lived through the AIDS epidemic, and if you have been in a war or survived an

first, the savvy literary agent who is the closest person Silver has to an ally, and then as his long-suffering wife who ultimately stands by her man.

Matte Osian ably plays a variety of roles, from book agents to an Israeli director who is duped into presenting Silver’s adaptation of the diaries. Matt Acheson’s marionettes and the able puppeteers in the catwalk create an otherworldly presence for Anne Frank and other characters.

When the puppet version of Anne descends to make peace with Silver’s wife, the neglected spouse tells Anne how nice it would have been known her as a grown woman.

The marionette Anne, with delicate hand gestures, replies, “Everybody likes me better dead. It’s depressing.”

But despite the tragic background and its odd anti-hero, Compulsion is never depressing. Sad at times, yes, but always vibrantly alive.M Compulsion will run at Berkeley Rep through Oct. 31. Tickets are $34 - $73. Call (510) 647-2949 or go to berkeleyrep.org.

I don’t really feel qualified to comment on an institution as large as marriage. I feel barely qualified to comment on the characters that I invent. I don’t think of Peter and Rebecca as some sort of ur-figures meant to represent universal human tendencies. I didn’t know where the book was headed, I don’t plan too far in advance. But I knew I didn’t want it to go where you expected it to go. I didn’t want Peter to smash up against youth and beauty, and end up like Aschenbach in Death in Venice, dead in a beach chair with a bad dye job and too much make-up on. Thomas Mann could only see doom in Aschenbach’s obsession with a younger man. I thought, maybe, something other than doom could get stirred up.M

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tance of inescapable bondage.

Well-known kink master Van Darkholme explains the link between his sexual activity and photographic art: “I view it as art and JO material more than anything else,” he has said.

“I love to record a bondage session with photos and/or videos. Then, I really get off on it later.” Male Bondage insures that you, too, can get off to Darkholme’s provocative beauties.

The artist’s provenance is a little misty. Though he was born in Viet Nam, he looks to be an Asian-American mix. He doesn’t bother to explain his parentage. Nor will he reveal his birthdate (a coy practice which only makes non-revealers sound older). An Internet search divulged it as 1972, which makes him

Howl M

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Lamble: This is a film about homosexuality, but not just about homosexuality. It’s where homosexuality is injected into the mainstream.

Epstein: The subtext of the trial is homosexuality, but in 1957 they couldn’t even say the word, so it’s more subtext than avert – but in terms of Allen, he was in large part writing a queer manifesto and I think that what’s new about this presentation of Howl. We didn’t even think about it in those terms until we got into trying to characterize different ideas and notions he’s expressing in the poem, and some of that is his avert love for Neal Cassidy and the fact that he wrote the poem for Jack Kerouac who was his inspiration in finding his literary voice and we tried to visualize that in the film.

39; just entering his prime, if you ask me.

It seems he was raised largely in America. In one interview, he placed himself in the Midwest at age 12, while telling of an event that was obviously a prime factor in his later interests. His friends began taunting the weakest boy in their group. Their childish prank turned into cruelty and devolved/escalated into a bondage humiliation, when they left the boy, finally, stripped and bound to a tree. When the bad boys left the scene that Van witnessed, he sat down and looked at the victim, strung up and half naked, for long minutes. Then he silently helped the boy down. “He was crying,” said Van, “and began to hug me.....”

Darkholme is now strikingly well-built, six feet of muscle with a

Friedman: It might sound naïve, but we really didn’t think of this as a particularly gay film when we went into it, and I think it’s the queerest film we’ve made!

Epstein: And it’s about the fifties!

Friedman: The first time I read (Howl) I didn’t get any of the queer references or I blocked them out, so I didn’t really remember how queer the poem was. It’s not just about being queer, but that’s definitely a theme that runs through it. And in studying his life and what went into the making of the poem, it became clear that his romantic relationships with these men were really crucial in unlocking his artistic voice. We shaped the film around three relationships. Kerouac was this meeting of the minds, this deep love that could never really become fully realized; Cassidy became this physical love that was never emotionally satisfying; and with Peter Orlovsky he was able to find true love and that’s

46” chest over a 32” chest, “And, for a couple of freaks out there,” he says, “I wear a size ten shoe.” He lived in Los Angeles during his young adulthood, the period of time when a fellow gets his shit together, and in which he slowly drifted toward his present fulfillment.

After the end of a three-year relationship, he began filmmaking. The seven DVD editions of the Bound Gods series are a little funky. They’re frequently most effective, and at other times rather amateur. He’s versatile, and a frequent performer in his movies.

Long-time acquaintance Daddy Zeus speaks in the book’s Forward of his pleasure at watching Darkholme “emerge from the privacy of his personal muscle bondage lifestyle...into an exceptional source of musclebondage (sic) fantasies and visuals on his

websites and videos.”

Darkholme explains his development succinctly: “I’ve been seeking art all my life, and now I realized that my life is art.”

That life of photographic and filmed sex/art led to his moving to San Francisco, his founding of Boundgods.com, and the publication of Male Bondage. It’s a pity that the strictures of newspaper publishing disallow showing the very thing that makes Male Bondage such a unique stunner. Bound cocks. Cocks made even harder, prouder, more regal, worshipful, and heartstopping, by bondage.

I think Male Bondage is pretty awesome, and lots of fun, if you like the fettered phallus, pulled penis, bulging balls, tethered tit. If these photos don’t provoke both earnest appreciation and slathering mouth, your Leather Card will be revoked.M

imagine himself playing that part.

We (went) through the script line by line, and we had extensive conversations about what Allen meant by each passage. By the time he got to the set, the last element for James was physically invoking the character: listening to his voice, studying how he moved, how he pointed his finger in the air when he was performing the poem, that was the last layer. But by the time he was delivering each of those lines, he had so much sense of understanding where they were coming from that he was able to perform it as if he was saying it for the first time. Also, he’s doing these long passages as a solo actor to an off-camera interviewer.

Lamble: It’s a technique that’s not used in film all that much.

Friedman: We looked at films that had done it: Lenny, the Bob Fosse film, uses interviews with an off-camera interviewer, where people are basically talking to camera.

The Office sort of uses that technique.

Epstein: And we wanted everything to be in the present tense in the film, which is why we veered away from doing it as documentary.

Lamble: How do you see Howl?

James Franco: Unlike Kerouac, who shrank back from the world as he got older, (Allen) Ginsberg adapted to each new movement as it came along – punk music, everything. But in this movie we focus on the few years when he got the poem published and I think that was a smart decision. Howl actually encompasses

everything that he had experienced up to that point. It touches on the issues of his mother, his family, Burroughs, Kerouac – his friend Carl Solomon – they’re all in there: love, his broken heart, his artistic ambitions, they’re all in that poem. In this movie you get to experience a lot of these things through the courtroom drama and then you get to experience them through the poem: the reading of Howl and then the actual experience of writing it.

Lamble: How did you decide to read the poem?

Franco: Ginsberg read Howl at the Six Gallery (in San Francisco) – it was one of the first readings of that era and it kind of spawned the tradition for poetry reading. Everybody was there: Kerouac, Neal Cassidy.

There’s no recording of that actual reading but there are some recordings of readings he did soon after. I found that as he got older he became a better reader, a better performer — Lamble: What did you learn about Howl?

Epstein: Just how emphatically queer a piece of literature it is. I (didn’t) fully understood that before and how brave (it) was for him to just speak that way back in the fifties. It’s still shocking to hear how graphic it is, even though we live in a culture where pornography is everywhere and virtually free, but to hear those words spoken, in the context of literature. M

Clonely

Our hero, Alexander, gets into trouble when his lie about the fate of a book he borrows from a kid in the other clique kicks off a spirited bit of adolescent mob rule that involves an overblown science contest, a missing parrot and ominous machinery at an abandoned factory. This is an example of all the good young male talent flowing into Germany’s revitalized film industry. (Embarcadero/9-25) More info on the NY/SF International Children’s Festival (September 24 through 26th) at Landmark’s Embarcadero Cinemas is at www.sffs.org.M

Van Darkholme adjusts ropes to Wolf Hudson.

photo:

Subjegation

when his voice was unlocked. When we understood that, it became central to how we thought about the film.

Lamble: How did James Franco come to play Allen Ginsberg?

Epstein: Gus (Van Sant, our Executive Producer) read the screenplay and suggested that we give it to James and we met him on the set of Milk and in that meeting learned a lot about him: that he was a Beat fan, he had grown up in Palo Alto reading the Beats, went to City Lights Bookstore as a kid, and he was the same age as Allen was when Allen wrote the poem and he loved the script. So we had a really good first meeting. Before that we put together a compilation of photographs of young Allen from the period he wrote Howl, and sent a DVD along with the script so that James could have a visual impression of what Allen looked like at the time, so it wasn’t such a stretch for him to

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tive spider bite in the Spider Man Reboot sequel.

Little White Lies: German director Marcus Rosenmuller gives the tweener, approaching their first film festival, crowd a frisky good time with this over-plotted but still enjoyable boys’ adventure. It’s 1931 and the on-thecusp-of-puberty students of a rural town’s academy have separated into rival gangs: the “A’s” versus the “B’s.”

Werther M

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Albert was all one could wish. The voice is as beautiful as it is generous. His acting was a bit bound up, but that may very well be all that Negrin asked of a character who discovers himself powerless to alter his new wife’s increasing emotional distance. Christian Van Horn’s Bailiff was equally sonorous, suggesting that his Bonze in our forthcoming Butterfly will make quite an impact. As the two lushes, Johan and Schmidt, Bojan Knezevic and Robert MacNeil were fine, and Adler Fellows Susannah Biller and Austin Kness looked great in hardly memorable roles that require very little singing.

This is only Werther’s sixth outing

Read more of this interview online at www.ebar.com.

at SFO in 75 years. Filled with beautiful music, and less than three hours in length, it demands to be seen. Just be aware that you may leave feeling dissatisfied, as though something has evaded your grasp. Despite multiple Werthers carrying torches around the stage, there’s something about the psychological complexity of Negrin’s conception that douses Massenet’s fire, pulling his music out of the heart and into the mind. For an opera based on a novel that made weeping in public fashionable for men, the mind is not the best place to dwell.M SFO’s Werther has three more performances: September. 26 at 2 pm, and September 28 and October 1 at 8 pm. For tickets, see www.sfopera.com or call (415) 864-3330.

23 September 2010 . BAY AREA REPORTER . eBAR.com

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MAIL WITH PAYMENT TO: Bay Area Reporter 395 Ninth Street SF, CA 94103

Telephone

OR FAX TO: State

Zip

415.861.8144

OR E-MAIL: Classification

Amount Enclosed

baradv@aol.com

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